Hollow Half
by NekoDae
Summary: Hina was Forced from the Soul Society over a century before the Vizards, all because of a test made by Aizen. Now that she has been re-united with her friends she is in more danger than ever before, can she save her friends and her mysterious brother?
1. Odd Reunions

Max - And here we are!

Shinji - And here is where?

Ichigo - *Smacks him up the head* Dude, are you insane? You don't question these author chicks…EVER

Max - Still wary because of Mandy?

Ichigo - Yeah! *Nods warily*

Shinji - *Rubbing the back of his head* And Mandy is?

Max - A friend

Ichigo - *At the same time* Evil

Max & Ichigo - *Glaring*

Shinji - *Sighs* Ok, Max doesn't own Bleach or any of it's characters, just the ones she makes up.

* * *

Max - Just a quick thanks to everyone who favorited and alerted, it really helped get me writing again and if you could quickly go to my profile and do a poll. It's for chapter three because I can't decide and I think it'll be interesting to see what you choose. It'll be closed when I post the next chapter^^

CatsThatWalk: Thanks, I'll try my hardest ^^

NotAStalker: :} Yay, I'm really glad you like it

Kh530: Thank-you . I know it's not chapter two but I hope you like it :)

Sajintmm: Yep, she's been there the whole time. I think Rose-Taicho is watching over a fight with Kensei and Hiyori but feel free to interupt ^^

imagination-the drug: Yes mam. It's not chapter two but I hope it's up to standard

* * *

I was racing through a forest, winding past trees and around bushes, taking unexpected turns. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't escape the blood red eyes, nor, the maniacal laugh that was perusing me, toying with me, following me tauntingly through the seemingly endless mass of vegetation.

Suddenly the ground slipped out from under me, causing my long hair to stream behind me as I fell, landing non-too-gently on the unforgiving ground

"**I'm catching up…" **

That sing-song voice spurred me into motion, driving me to swerve through the branches and bushes in my mad dash for freedom.

I stopped _finally_ I looked out across the soul society, drinking in the comforting glow of the Seireitei and the harsh warmth of the Rukongai.

"**Don't stop…"**

I slipped down the slope, creating a large cloud of dust _damn that bastard…_ I ran and ran, never getting further away from the darkness pursuing me.

A blinding flash and a echoing thump as I hit a force field and dropped once again to the ground, long grass swaying in the slight breeze.

"**Awww…Why did you stop running?"**

I could hear him getting closer, still taunting me as I lay there shivering in the cool night air, tattered robes barely covering my body.

I saw something falling from the sky and before I could even scream I was covered in darkness.

* * *

I sat up, stifling a scream, tears dripping from my chin and shudders using my spine as a race track. I pull my knees up and rest my forehead on them _damn_ pounding the floor with a fist I stand up and walk to the window with shaky legs.

Sliding open the window I climb out of it and jump onto the roof "You had to have a spectacular entrance didn't you?" I ask as I sit on the roof and watch the sun rising

"**oh defiantly"** I knew thought sarcasm wasn't lost on her but Kari was like that. Kari is my hollow. She's also the reason that I was forced form the Soul Society but I don't hold t against her. We've had our good times and our bad times but, over the past century or so, she's become more like my sister.

Kari appeared next to me, also watching the violently coloured sky. I could hear people moving around inside the Shoten, mostly Renji and Urihara though Jinta was yelling his opinion quite a bit as well.

With a heavily exaggerated sigh Kari faded back into my inner world, leaving me to jump from the roof and climb back into my bedroom by myself.

Picking up a towel I opened the door to my private bathroom and turned the shower on, stripping off my pyjamas and slipping under the steamy stream of water.

When I turned off the water I ran a hand through my waist length hair, removing excess water and most of the knots, before wrapping a towel around my waist and opening the door, walking through the billowing wall of steam and over to my wardrobe.

Pulling on a white lace bra and patching panties, I pulled on my school blouse and was just pulling the skirt off it's special hanger when the Shoji screen imploded and Renji went rolling backwards across my floor, spreading wood chips everywhere.

The noise made me spin round and the sight of Renji made me loose my balance, landing on my rear I watched as Renji and a certain strawberry started yelling at each other. They were yelling about something un-important, whether Rukia's addiction to Chappy was unhealthy or not, when Yoruichi walked in. Looking around the room she sighed, shaking her head as she walked over to the wardrobe door and pulled it closed, revealing me to the two boys. Standing up I pulled down my top a little before giving a glare to the two.

Renji was currently on his back, his fist millimetres away from Ichigo's nose and his eyes wide as he looked at me, wolf whistling quietly. Ichigo has both hands around Renji's neck and he was turning red, yet he didn't turn away. Sighing I pick up my towel and walk into the bathroom, slipping on my skirt, hanging up my towel and brushing out my hair before walking back into my room and, picking up my bag, I glanced at the spot that the two idiots were situated a minute before. The boys had vacated the room but the door was still strewn across my room, a large hole in the once flawless screen "idiots" I grumble to myself as I close my bag and, slipping my phone into my pocket, walked through the hole and down the hall.

I could hear Ichigo and Renji had carried on their argument in the small dining room and, making myself some breakfast I sat quietly at the table. As soon as I did however, the two stopped arguing and looked at me. The silence in the room was getting oppressive as I sat there and ate my breakfast, the boys watching and occasionally glancing at each other  
"yes? Can I help you with something?" I ask finally, getting rather annoyed with the two

"no, nothing" Ichigo said, looking away and rubbing the back of his head. Renji just grinned and snickered

"_tch_, then will you stop staring at me and get back to your pointless argument?" I ask, taking the last bite of my breakfast and standing up. Walking back into the kitchen I put my plates in the sink and pack my lunch which consists of some salmon sushi, a rice ball, some strawberries and some octopus shaped cocktail weenies. Putting the lunch box into my bag I close it and walk back into the dining room, where I pick up my jacket and put it on while watching the two idiots yell at each other once again.

Noticing the time I sigh, grab my bag, walk over to the two boys and grab Renji's collar, pulling him away from the strawberry "what the hell?"

"if you two idiots don't hurry up your going to be late" I say with a backwards wave as I walk out the door into the sunlight.

I can hear the two hurrying around inside the shop and, by the time I was at the end of the courtyard, they had quickly caught up to me. And so the interrogation began "so who are you?" Renji asked, walking on my left

"Hina Hitsumori, pleasure" I smiled at the two, despite my annoyance. Over the past five years I've been interrogated by Ichigo time and time again, now it starts again "Don't worry, I know both your names" I say, walking backward just in front of the two

"right… So you're new to Karakura town?"

"Obviously, I got here late last night and it was too late for Kisuke to introduce me then so he's going to do it after school" I say, more to Ichigo than Renji

"ok, you call him Kisuke, but everyone else calls him Mr. Urihara" Renji's implied question earned a sigh

"you call him Kisuke"

"I have special circumstance" Renji said in a superior tone

An eyebrow rose "my mother is a close friend of Kisuke. He's pretty much my uncle" Renji didn't look so smug now, he actually looked kinda pale. Looking behind Renji I noticed a short girl with black hair, running up behind the two boys "do you know we're being followed?"

Both boys looked behind them, grinning when they saw the girl, and waved "you could have waited for me" she said, coming to a stop next to us. She bent over, hands on her knees and took deep breaths, trying to slow her breathing

"we didn't know you were coming."

"_tch_, that's a lie. I live with him remember" She cut down Renji's excuse easily. Upon hearing this Renji glared at the strawberry, punching him in the arm

"…ooops?" Ichigo rubbed the back of his head nervously

"idiot, you could have remembered" Renji punched him again.

I took this opportunity to excuse myself quietly, running down the street while Ichigo and Renji continued to argue. At the corner I turned, cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled "heeey, you're going to be late" The two boys looked at me then each other, before bolting down the street after me

"hey, we weren't finished with you" I turned and bolted down the street, laughing at the sound of the boys yelling at me.

* * *

I ran, breathless, into the school grounds. Slowing to a quick walk I made my way up the front steps and into the main building.

Walking to the main office I immediately make my way over to the desk, where I am greeted by a office worker with a big smile, short brown hair and a name tag that says her name is Ami "can I help you?"

"yeah, I'm starting school today…" even though I had done this over and over for around 200 years I really didn't know what to add.

"ah, welcome. I just need your name" She glanced at my green hair and gold eyes, the smile dimming just a little

"Hina Hitsumori" I smiled

"ok," She disappeared into the back of the office for a moment before re-appearing with a small pile of papers "here you go. You'll need to get this signed by your teachers and hand it back in at the end of the day, here's your class schedule for the term, the key to your Phys-Ed locker and a map of the school. Good luck"

I smiled a little wider "thank-you"

Waving, I walk out of the office, I glance at the map for good measure before starting off towards my class. As I walked out of the office I bumped into someone, falling down _it's better to look like I don't have very good balance and apologise…_ "oh, sorry about that," I look at the owner of the voice, a smooth and up-beat voice that hid some serious pain. The owner of the voice was tall, skinny with short, corn coloured hair and grey eyes. A smile, more like a smirk, showed his upper teeth and a hand was offered to me so that he could help me up ", you ok?"

I nod and take his hand, dusting off my skirt when I was standing straight "I'm fine, I should have been looking where I was going, sorry" I look at his face and, though he has changed quite a bit in 200 years, it was defiantly him _Shinji Hirako_. I bow a little, pick up my bag and wave as I walk away, glad that I kept hold of my papers when I fell.

I wanted to run, my heart was trying to beat it's way out of my chest and my mouth was dry. Opening my bag I pull out a water bottle and take a gulp, the water washed the desert from my mouth and, as I walked further from the office, my heart slowed _damn, he shouldn't be here_. Sighing I put my water bottle back in my bag and open the door to my homeroom, room 1-3.

I had missed the first five minutes of the class talking with Shinji and walking to the class slowly, so that it added to the guise of being new "sorry I'm late, I'm new and got lost" I blushed a little in embarrassment as people started murmuring to each other

"Ah, you must be one of our new transfer students. I'm Mrs. Ochi but you can call me Ochi-sensei. Please, introduce your self to the class while I decide where to place you" She smiled encouragingly to me. I walked further into the room and faced the class, scanning the room _just my luck I'm in the same room as Ichigo AND Renji_.

"hello. I'm Hina Hitsumori" I smiled a little "I'm 16 and moved here from Tokyo last night"  
"well, welcome to Karakura town. If you'd please take the empty seat at the back of the class, the one closest to the window" I nodded and walked to the back of my class, pulling out my chair when in walked Shinji ", and you must be Shinji. Please introduce your self then take the empty seat"

He scanned the class and his eyes found mine, though only for a second before I looked away "of course. My name is Shinji Hirako. I'm 16 and just moved here from Tokyo" I groan silently, sighing _why'd he have to be in this class?_

"pleased to meet you Shinji. Now, to get back to the lesson…"

I didn't hear what she said, intensely aware of Shinji; who was sitting just out of reach, Ichigo; giving me a dirty look from the corner of his eye and Renji; grinning evilly at me from behind Ichigo. Sighing again quietly I slowly zoned out, looking out the window.

* * *

Walking out of the class room I slung my bag over my shoulder and walked to the changing sheds, Pys-Ed the next class on my schedule.

Making my way to the changing sheds I pushed open the door and looked around. The room was large with rows of lockers, one above another, ringing the room. The lockers were named and, after a little searching, found mine in the far corner of the room.

Walking over to my locker I pulled out my key, on a chain around my neck, put my bag in it and, only after I pulled out my P.E. gear, did I quickly get changed and put my uniform in my slightly open locker. Locking the locker and putting the chain back around my neck, I joined the other girls that were filing out onto the field.

As I walked out into the sun I put my hair in a high pony-tail. The guys P.E. uniform was a pair of navy track pants, a white top and white sneakers while the girls uniform as a pair of navy shorts that reached mid thigh, a white shirt and white sneakers _I bet it was a guy that designed the uniform…_ I think to myself as our teacher, a large muscled man that went by the name of Kagine-sensei, told us that we'd be playing a game of 'boys vs. girls' soccer. Grinning I said to the girls "come on, I'm sure we can give them a beating" this got some cheers from the girls and some goading from the opposition.

40 minutes later we were tied and it was 5 minutes until the end of the game. So far the ball had managed to stay near the middle of the field with some forays onto either side before the ball was kicked away.

It turned out that Tatsuki had some impressive soccer skill and a few other girls in the class had notable skills, the same for the guys team, Ichigo had skill, Renji didn't really get the game but he had a hell of a kick and Shinji had the most notable skill of them all; though that could be because of the 100 or so years he had as a chance to practice.

Shinji was powering down the field, kicking the ball in front of him, grinning as he moved around two girls and continued on his path.

I stood just in front of the goalie square, adding a extra layer of protection against the guy who was speeding down the field. Grinning I took a few steps forward, glad that I had played soccer in the team a couple of times in the past 200 years. Shinji saw me guarding the goalie and grinned, speeding up. Suddenly he put his foot under the ball, bumping it into the air before jumping up and spin kicking the ball towards the net. The ball had streams of dust flying out from behind it as it spiralled towards the net.

Taking a deep breath I jumped up, flipping so that I caught the ball in the curve of my foot. The ball paused for a second before my momentum sent it flying in the other direction, hurtling towards the other net.

I landed in a crouch, spinning my foot in a half circle and pausing for a second, hearing the crunch as the ball hit the net but not seeing the potential damage that kick did.

Standing up and dusting myself off stumbled forward a little as Renji clapped me on the back "nice kick, I bet you could do some serious damage with that"

"Heh, we could test it if you want, you can be the dummy" I said, grinning up at him _why is everyone so tall?_

Kagine-sensei walked into the ring of students that had formed to congratulate the girls on winning the game "alright, alright. Girls, congratulations on winning the game. Now if you'd run a lap to warm down then get changed" We all grumbled about it but everyone stated running the lap, staying mostly in a group around the track, some straggling behind the group and some rushing in front.

The whole time I was running in a small group with Rukia, Renji, Ichigo, Orihime, Tatsuki, Chad and Shinji. Our little group was in front of the main group but not at the very front and, that said, we were still some of the first finished and on our way into the changing rooms.

Walking through the door I heard my name being called and, turning round, I came face to face with Tatsuki, Rukia and Orihime "wow, that was a great kick Hitsumori-San. Where'd you learn to do that?" Orihime smiled at me, it was one that you almost couldn't not return.

"Nii-san taught it to me. He stayed in Tokyo" I smiled a little, thinking of Rose always hurt even if we aren't really related

"you're brother must be talented" I nod at Tatsuki as we make our way to our lockers.

Tatsuki's is next to mine on the right, Rukia's is on the left and Orihime's is one above mine so she let me get my locker open first

"I guess. Nii-san and some friends would always have game of one sport or another and I'd always be dragged into joining"

"sounds fun. What were they like?"

"they were the craziest bunch of people that I had ever met. They were always yelling at each other for one reason or another and fights broke out more than once but it was always in a way where you could tell it wasn't serious" I smiled at the memories.

The three girls smiled but Orihime thought of something "oh, we know you're name but you don't know ours. I'm Orihime Inoue" She smiled and bowed slightly

"I'm Tatsuki Arisawa, pleased to meet you" Tatsuki gave a half salute that looked more like a wave

"Rukia Kuchiki, pleasure" Rukia smiled, which turned into a thoughtful frown "hey, you were the girl from this morning. I knew I had seen you somewhere when you walked into the room this morning and it just dawned on me"

I nodded, tucking my blouse into my skirt "yeah, I just moved into the Shoten. Renji and Ichigo found out this morning and decided to interrogate me" I shrugged, pulling my bow tight.

Rukia rolled her eyes "I understand why you ran off this morning then. Those two are so idiotic sometimes" Rukia pulled on her jacket and grabbed her bag, closing her locker.

* * *

Not even five minutes later we were making our way into the science lab where a tall, thin woman greeted us. Ebeki-sensei signed the two slips presented to her before assigning us seats.

I was seated next to the window with Ichigo and Renji in front of me, Shinji sitting next to me, Rukia and Tatsuki were behind me and Orihime next to Tatsuki.

Today we were doing practical, mixing various chemicals in test tubes and writing down detailed descriptions of what we did and what the result was.

Our partners were the ones sitting next to us and, once we were set up completely, we were allowed to start the practical. It turned out that Shinji wasn't to good with chemicals, almost blowing the test tube more than once, and it seemed that Ichigo and Renji weren't doing any better.

I was facing away from them and, hearing a test tube shatter and Ichigo yell in pain, my immediate reaction was to look in their direction. It turned out that they had mixed to ingredients that, when mixed, created a potent acid and a gas. They had then put a cork in the test tube to record the results which, unfortunately, led to the pressure building up and, ultimately, led to the cork bursting from the test tube , the test tube forcibly shattering; leading to the acid and glass spilling onto the two's hands and the cork heading my way.

I jerked up when I heard the tube shatter, which put me right in the path of the cork. The cork in question had quite a force behind it, enough in fact to slam into my forehead and set me of balance, pushing me back. Unfortunately, or maybe not, there was a desk in my way and my head hit the corner of the rather hard desk before hitting the equally hard floor.

I saw, through my foggy vision, that Ebeki-sensei was yelling at Renji and Ichigo, telling them to get their burns and cuts looked at, before coming over and kneeling next to me. I was on my side with hair spread around me, Ms. Ochi was kneeling next to my head and Shinji was next to her, I could see his shoes. I could hear Ms. Ochi tell Shinji to take me to the nurse and to be careful of my head but it was like I had cotton in my ears or something because I could hear less and less of what was said.

I could feel myself being picked up, held to a surprisingly muscled chest, but I didn't stick around for long, succumbing to the call of the past.

_They say it was a hollow that did this but it looked more like sword wounds to me. I held Rose's hand as I cried, sorry that I hadn't been there to help. Unohana-Taicho said that Rose had been bleeding for a while before someone from his squad came looking, though credit to them for getting him to Squad 4 so fast._

_I heard the door slide open, then closed, and familiar footsteps crossed the room "Kaori, how is he?" Shinji asked his question quietly, standing behind me with a hand on my shoulder_

"_he's stable" I had to talk quietly so that my voice didn't crack, I hadn't stopped crying since I heard the news._

_I was with Shinji, talking about starting anew training program for the squad members, when the Hell Butterfly came. I held out a finger for the butterfly, which perched on the tip of my outstretched finger before relaying the message from Unohana-Taicho. The message said that Rose had been fighting a hollow outside of the Rukon and that he was grievously hurt, Unohana-Taicho had him stable and that I could see him immediately if I wanted. My face must have given me away because Shinji picked up on it immediately, asking what was wrong. I had whispered Rose's name before using my fastest Shun-Po to get to the Fourth Squad critical relief station where Rose's room was stationed, close to Unohana-Taicho's office in case of an emergency._

"_how are you?" Shinji asked, just as quietly_

"_I'm…" I didn't even know how I was feeling. I was a jumbled mass of emotions that just couldn't get out, but how to explain that_

"_Kaori, come back to the barracks'_

"_I can't, I have to stay next to Rose…just to make sure he's alright" There went more tears, dripping onto my hand, onto Roses hand, before I could wipe them away_

"_Kaori, he wouldn't want you to be like this. He's fine, Unohana-Taicho is just down the hall and She'll keep a close eye on him" He knelt down so that his eyes were at the same level as mine "he wouldn't want to see you crying like this Kaori" For a lazy, perverted Captain he wasn't so bad at this sort of stuff_

"_but-…"_

"_he'll be fine. I promise you" he pulled me into a hug, not minding that I was creating a rather large, wet patch on his Haori with my tears, he just let me cry myself out._

_I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remember was Shinji, holding me close to his chest as he Shun-Poed back towards Squad 5. I clutched his Haori a little tighter and fell back into unconsciousness, not seeing that he had walked back into his office and, opening a second sliding door with his foot, placed me on a futon that was here for if the Taicho had to spend most of the night on paper work._

_I woke the next morning, groggily, to find myself on a futon that smelled like Shinji. I let the smell envelop me for a second before yawning and standing up. I packed away the Futon and pulled a hand through my waist length gold hair, the green highlights catching the sun as I walked into the darker office._

_Aizen wasn't there yet, and for that I was grateful, but neither was Shinji. Sighing I walked further into the room, aiming for the door, when I felt something grab my wrist as I walked past the couch "leaving without saying good-bye eh, Kaori-chan?"_

_I looked down, seeing Shinji's large hand enveloping my wrist, and smiled_

" _I didn't think you were here" Shinji had one eye open, looking at me though the silver-grey orb, and a grin on his face that should have made me nervous, and it would have if I weren't used to it by now. Shinji pulled me down and, when I was sitting on the couch, he wrapped both arms around my waist "how're you feeling this morning?"_

"_I'm fine" I lied. I was feeling like shit this morning but I knew Shinji wouldn't let me go if I told him that, and I really wanted to see Rose._

_Shinji sat up and put his face close to mine. He held it there for a nervous second before announcing "you're lying"_

_I heard the door slide open and Aizen come in "uh, Taicho-…"_

"_What is it Sosuke?"_

My eyes opened, though I was sure they were open before…no, it was just a memory "how are you feeling?"

I stiffened, looking to my left "I'm fine" Shinji was sitting next to me, the chair he was sitting in was on it's two back legs and leaning against the wall.

His eyes bored into mine and his usual grin was prominent "you don't look alright. To be honest you look like shit"

"Thanks" I rolled my eyes and closed them again

"so who's Rose?" My eyes snapped open and I sat up so fast I made myself dizzy

"what?" _Please don't say I was sleep talking?_

"you were mumbling in you're sleep. Something about having to stay with Rose" he game me a hard look

"Rose is the nickname I gave to Nii-san when I was younger. When we were still in America he was in a car accident and was unconscious for a few days…I had to be dragged from his side by a friend…"

The chair legs clattered slightly as it had it's two front legs set back on the lino floor. Shinji stood and put a hand on my shoulder "I don't think you should sit up so fast, you did quite a bit of damage to your self for just being hit with a cork-"

"…and a table and the floor" I cut him off, holding my throbbing head in both hands. I couldn't heal myself until Shinji left because, though I wouldn't emit a rise in Reiatsu, the healing spells had a tendency to glow.

"Yeah, yeah" He looked away, a slight smile pulling at the edges of his lips "smart ass"

I just grinned "yep, that's me"

* * *

Max - And this chapter is finally re-written. i know a lot of people like the first one but i tried continuing with it and it just writ it's self into a block so...

Ichigo - *inspecting story* And it actually looks good

Max - I'm not sure weather to thank you or hit you

Ichigo - *nervously*Let's go with the first one

Max - *suspicious* Sure…


	2. Odd Reunions Part 2

Max - *smiles* welcome to another chapter of Hollow Half

Shinji - *yelling* Why are you beating up on my poor Hina-Chan?

Max - *eye roll* It's not intentional

Shinji - *yelling* Like hell it's not

Max - *getting defensive* Oh, would you rather you were the one being beaten up on?

Shinji - No…

Max - Good, then be quiet please

Shinji - but-…

Max - Do I need to get Hiyori in here?

Shinji and Ichigo - *looking scared* No, please no

Max - *grins* Thought not. I don't own Bleach or any of it's characters, just the ones I make up.

Max - Just a quick thanks to everyone who favourited and alerted, you all get a freshly baked virtual cookie. ^^

Everyone else who reads this but doesn't review. Please try your best to do so because I really want to know what you think so that I can make the appropriate changes or add things.

So the poll was helpful but not really. Thanks to those FOUR people who voted and here are the results for the poll:

Avril Lavigne - What the hell? - **1 vote**

Daniel Powter - Bad Day - **1 vote**

Neon Trees - Animal (Viral Version) - **1 vote**

George Micheal - Faith - **1 vote**

CatsThatWalk: Apparently you do, and so do I sometimes ^^ thanks for that and I hope this makes the fact that I re-posted chapter 1 a little less horrible…didn't mean to make you cry.

NotAStalker: Well I'm sorry for being so cruel but the old version was writing itself into a block so I had to re-do it…and it was going too fast for my liking. I'm glad you liked the changes and I hope this was posted before you died. THANK-YOU ^^

Nutty Fruitcake: ^^well I'm glad you think that but I honestly don't think that Suspense is my forte…Yeah I never was good with grammar and I'm kinda stressed with homework so I miss things when I read over my chapter again, Sorry. I'm also working on tenses with the above reason applying again but I'm going to change that next chappie. I actually used Hina-Chan on a RPing site that I'm on and was set upon but I didn't realise until someone on there pointed it out to me but by then it was too late to change because She's one of the only ones I remember… =.='

"**Hello"** - Shows that the speaker is talking to a Hollow.

"_Hello"_ - Shows that the speaker is talking to a Zanpakuto.

_Hello_ - Shows that the speaker is thinking

* * *

By the time that we got out of the nurses office science was over and lunch had only just begun "are you ok?"

"yes Shinji, I'm fine" I smiled up at him, sighing inside at the height difference of around 40 cm "why're you so worried?"

"am I not allowed to be worried?"

"it's just that you don't seem the one to worry to much about people you just met" I looked up at Shinji out of the corner of my eye "has it got something to do with the reason you always look so sad?"

"but I'm not-"

I jumped up on the side of a raised garden and grabbed his shoulder "yes, you are. I can read people so well it's scary and I can see that you're hurt deeply so don't you dare tell me you're not" I looked into his shocked eyes for a second before jumping from the garden and running back inside.

In the Science room I quickly packed up my bag and hurried out of the room. I was almost at the end of the hall when I heard foot-steps coming from behind me, disappearing briefly into the classroom before coming back.

I turned to see Shinji about a meter away from me "you've got some skills, I'll give you that. How'd you know?"

"the look in your eyes is like the one kaa- san had when tou-san died and when nii-san was in the hospital. When you're around that much pain you learn to recognise it" we turned the corner and started up the stairs "so, if I may ask, what happened to make you hurt so badly?"

"well…when I was quite young I was friends with a girl who was always smiling, even when she was sad or angry she was smiling. We went to school together and told each other everything. In our second year of middle school we got together and we were almost inseparable but one night she was attacked. We had been fighting just before she was attacked and, though we knew she wasn't dead, she never showed up. I've been looking for her since then but I still haven't found her"

I remembered that we'd been fighting about something trivial, something to do with the squad, and immediately after I stormed out I wanted to go back and apologise but I was sent on a mission where I was Hollowfied by Aizen.

"I'm sorry to hear that, she sounds like a wonderful girl. It's horrible when fighting rips a relationship apart"

"and what would you know about that?"

"my mother and father were fighting before he died and she never got to apologise to him. She blames herself for his death"

I pushed open the door to the roof and stepped into the sun

"what're we doing up here?"

"eating" I look around for a spot and, instead, I'm spotted by Orihime.

"Hitsumori-san" she stood up and walked over to us "join us for lunch?"

I smile "ok"

"I'll just leave you to it then" Shinji said and turned to walk off, almost chocking as I grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him after me.

Sitting next to Uryuu and Shinji, a uncomfortable silence had made it's way over the group. The silence was broken when Orihime, setting down her bento, looked at me

"Hitsumori-san, how are you feeling?"

"hmmm? I'm fine Inoue-san" I smiled and turned to Ichigo and Renji, looking at their bandaged hands "what about you two?"

"fine"

"what's wrong, you seem…moody" I smiled innocently, silently having a hunch what he was moody about

"he's still annoyed that the boys lost the soccer game" Rukia supplied, taking a sip from her juice-box

"I am not" Ichigo answered quickly, scowling at Rukia

I raised an eyebrow "fine, but how the hell did you learn to kick like that?"

"practice" I say, taking a bite from the octopus-shaped cocktail weenie that was trapped between my chopsticks

"right…"Ichigo obviously didn't believe me but he didn't say anything more about it, changing the subject. The lunch hour was fun but rather un-eventful, talking mostly about small things but one thing that caught my attention was the small conversation that Rukia, Renji and Ichigo had once Shinji and I had left for class.

The three were planning to have a training session that afternoon at Urihara's, even though they knew that I was there _hmmm, maybe I'll join their little…session_ I thought as I descended the stairs back into the belly of the school.

* * *

History of Japan was actually quite boring. Usually the teacher, Shinata-sensei, made things interesting with some sort of hands on work but not today apparently. Today Shinata-sensei was reading for the hour and the text was quite dull, something about the culture of the ancient Japanese.

I sat there, looking out the window and watching the birds settle in the tree outside and chirp happily to the students on the other side of the glass. Scowling I turned to face the teacher, resting my head on my crossed arms and settling in to a half-hour of dry-text reading. Maths wasn't much better, finding the hypotenuse of a triangle then determining whether you'd use Sin, Cos or Tan in further calculations. Not fun at all.

Flipping to the right page of the text book I picked up my pen and, reluctantly, started working on the equations. It seemed that, just to taunt me, the hour dragged on to an almost impossible length and, when the bell rang to signify the end of school, you could hear the sighs of relief from the other students as they closed their books and packed their bags, walking out of the classroom.

Waving good-bye to Shinji I turned to see Rukia and the two red-heads hurrying down the hall, waving good-bye to some students as they went _time to have some fun_ I grinned and followed the trio out of the school grounds, staying a small way behind.

After fifteen minutes of walking I strode into the familiar courtyard of the Urihara Shoten, opening the door and walking straight into my room to get changed. Hearing a large crash from below I sigh and start walking. To anyone else it would look like I was searching for the source of the 'mysterious' banging and crashing but I knew exactly where to go, slowly making my way to the meeting room. Bending down I put my ear to the floor and listened, grinning slightly as a large crash echoed up from under the floor _perfect._ Shifting the table I fit my finger into a small, un-noticed hole and jerked it upwards , pulling the trapdoor open with little effort. I made my way quickly down the ladder, taking note of where the reiatsu was originating from and swivelling, looking around and spotting a large cloud of dust hanging around the middle of the training field.

Sighing I hurried down the ladder and walked quickly through the maze of rock formations, taking about five minutes to make it to the centre of the training facility where I was confronted with an interesting sight.

Ichigo was in Bankai, though it was obvious he was holding back, with the long black jacket fluttering around his legs as he dodged attacks from Rukia and Renji's shikai releases. "Some no mai, Tsukishiro" Ichigo used his immense speed to evacuate the circle before the attack was complete before being pushed back a little by Renji's extending shikai. Renji was standing with his back to me and, when he dodged one of Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshō's, the blast that was made for Renji almost sliced into me. Small pieces of rubble rained down on me and I covered my head with both hands, feeling a large rock bounce off my shoulder _damn_ brushing small stones off my shoulders and head I straighten up, peering around the rock again to see Rukia and Renji closing in on either side of Ichigo, slashing at him from both sides. The strawberry flashed away and struck Renji from the side, the Fuku-Taicho blocking the attack and sending Ichigo back a little "Hado 31. Shakkahō" Rukia sent the red ball of energy spiralling at Ichigo, who slashed at Renji and jumped out of the way. Retaliating to Ichigo's attack Renji sent Zabimaru at Ichigo, the strawberry was already dodging another kido from Rukia and had to do some quick manoeuvring to avoid being stabbed by the spiked blade

"hey, that almost took my head off" Ichigo sounded indignant as he sent a Getsuga Tenshō at the red-head but got hit in the shoulder with a Byakurai shot from Rukia

"well if you're not careful…" Rukia stood in the air, just higher than Ichigo and smirked down at the strawberry "Tsugi no mai, Hakuren" Rukia punctures the ground once creating a large ice circle just in front of her. She then punctures the ground in front of her four times in a semi circle, taking a battle stance as ice particles begin to flow up from the four punctures. They build up around her Zanpakuto and Rukia thrusts her sword forward, releasing the ice in a white wave which heads quickly for Ichigo and Renji, leaving a trail of ice in the air.

Both shinigami dodge to the side of the blast and it heads straight past them, straight for me. "shit" swearing quietly I quickly summon a kido barrier around me, not a moment to soon as the wave of ice enveloped the rock I was kneeling behind and the kido barrier itself. The barrier was a golden orange square around 2 meters square and was now completely covered in solid ice, letting the Kido go I touched the ice hesitantly feeling the cold and slippery surface under the palm of my hand. My breath came out in a puff of white and I could hear the sounds of the three-way battle coming from somewhere above me and to my right, swearing quietly I growl and punch the ice in an attempt to break it. Since my skin was protected by hierro it was like punching a brick wall, just without the pain and bleeding that came with it and the ice starts to crack and chip away under the pressure of the battle above it and the pressure of my punches.

Punching through a ten-centimeter-thick chunk of ice isn't fun, nor smart, but I decided that the ice needed to go and, pulling back my arm, I let out a growl. It was fascinating, watching my fist disappear into the blue-tinged ice which cracked around the impact hole and cracked away around the outer edge of the outer impact hole.

I wiggled my wrist about a little, trying to dislodge any larger pieces of the loose ice before I pulled my arm back through the hole and stepped back a little, taking a deep breath before lashing out with my foot. I aimed my kick well and I managed to make the hole a little bigger on one side, the roughly square chunk fell from the wall and shattered at my feet _dammit, thought it would be bigger than that…._ Growling I lashed out again and again, chunks of ice falling on both sides of the barrier now.

With one last kick I sent a chunk of ice hurtling into the nearest rock feature while another almost hit Ichigo who, along with Renji and Rukia, were standing in mid-air watching the icy wall 'self-destruct'. Unfortunately for me I had kicked to much out of the wall and the whole thing ended up collapsing on me in a pile of icy rubble.

I could hear worried calls through my stupor and opened my eyes enough to see that I was in a small pocket of ice that was being held up by a large chunk, most likely from the ceiling of the icy cube. Watching as the ice around me trembled I could vaguely see through the large ceiling piece, spotting only a mass of fiery hair on each side of this large chunk "one…three" their speech was muffled but I could see that they were going to move the largest piece first. The largest piece had a piece of ice sticking out of one side, holding up all the other small pieces of ice from crashing down into my pocket of space. With the grating, squeaking sound of ice rubbing on ice the two boys moved their piece of ice and the other pieces came tumbling down.

One piece, triangular in shape, smashed itself onto my temple and I knew no more.

When my eyes cracked open the first thing I saw was the fuzzy outlines of three people, two with fiery hair and one with black hair. Blinking away the fuzziness I groaned and put a hand tenderly to my head. There was only a very slight twinge and a small lump on the corner of my temple "Are you alright Hitsumori-san?"

Nodding slightly I sit up and run a hand through my bangs "I'm fine Kuchiki-san"

"why were you even down there anyway?"

"I was hearing large bangs and crashes coming from under the shop and I decided to search for the cause of the noise" a shrug was all I gave them

"usually if people hear mysterious sounds coming from under a shop they don't go investigating" Ichigo looked almost bored as he spoke

"so? Speaking of under the shop…what the hell are you?" I eyed all three individually. It wasn't that I didn't know what they were it was just to see their expressions as they came up with a answer "last time I checked standing on air, throwing around ice and energy attacks or even moving at the speeds you were are things that normal people do"

"what do you mean? I think you hit your head too hard" Renji stood up "I'm going to tell Urahara that you're awake"

"oh really? And what, may I ask, did I hit my head on again?" I raised an eyebrow, my eyes flicked to Renji's form as he froze in the doorway

"the corner of the table. You just blanked and fell forward suddenly" Rukia supplied a good excuse _they must have come up with a excuse while I was out…_ "we figured that it was an after-effect from this morning"

"ah…" I watched as Renji left, closing the door behind him again

"are you sure you're alright Hitsumori-san?" Rukia knelt next to me with a worried look on her face

"yeah, I'm fine Kuchiki-san" I stood up, faking a wobble for authenticities sake "I'm going to go to bed, get some more sleep" I opened the door and walked from the room quickly, ditching the wobbling act as soon as I had turned the corner.

* * *

Rushing to my room I closed the door and took a quick shower, the water having been diverted from the pools in the training grounds healed my head wound quickly, as well as a the state of my knuckles after I removed bandages I didn't even realise I had on. Exiting the shower I walked into my room and over to the set of draws next to the door. Pulling on a pair of long pyjama pants and a tank top I grab a particular glove and sink onto the futon, laying down I slip on the glove and slap myself on the forehead with it.

My souls immediate response was to go backwards but, because I was lying on my back, unfortunately that way wasn't available so, after a very uncomfortable moment of struggle where my Soul was half out of my body, the only other way was to go forward. I was thrown forward very quickly and face planted into the floor on the other side of the futon "owww" rubbing my jaw I sat up and tucked the gigai into the futon's blankets before standing and walking over to the mirror. My reflection showed that my pyjamas had changed into a sleeveless black blouse, tight black mini-shorts, grey socks that went to mid thigh and black boots that went almost to the knee. Hyoumu flowed around me and basically absorbed the black that was in the rest of my outfit, creating a hooded cloak that couldn't be moved by anyone but me. "be careful Kaori-Chan" I whirled around to see Kisuke Urahara standing in the doorway, the stupid fan of his no-where to be seen

"I always am Kisuke" I smiled " I know that it's probably more dangerous now because of the Vizards but I'll be careful"

"not just the Vizards. Shinigami apart from Kuchiki-Chan and Abarai-san have been appearing in Karakura lately. Not all of them are with the Gotei thirteen either"

"damn, I should have known…" I sighed and looked out of the window "I probably had better go. I've got rounds to do"

I flipped up the hood of my cloak and jumped out of the window, my golden green hair shining in the moonlight as waved to Kisuke before disappearing into the bright night.

It hadn't been long when I came across a very interesting sight. Ichigo stood on the roof of a building, obviously arguing with the afroed shinigami on the roof across from him. Neither of them had noticed the figure coming out of the gloom, drawing his sword and preparing to strike. I wanted to call out to Ichigo but Kari shushed me and told me to watch.

Shinji attacked and Ichigo drew Zangetsu just in time.

The blades clashed in a shower of sparks and Ichigo stepped back a little, asking Shinji what he was doing. Shinji replied that Ichigo had to be quiet or people might hear and, facing the confused strawberry, Shinji said that he had to be quieter with his spirit pressure or people might become worried. I moved quietly, running and putting a little spirit pressure into a jump that took me behind a rather large potted plant on someone's roof-garden and remembering all to late that the reiatsu safety net was gone.

Swearing quietly I parted the branches of the bush I peeked through only to be disappointed as Ichigo rushed off in the direction of a new, larger release of spirit energy. Shinji yelled after the strawberry, saying that they weren't finished talking but Ichigo ignores him and hurries off across the rooftops without a second glance.

Pulling out his phone he dials a number and holds the phone to his ear and, judging by the yelling going on, it was Hiyori that he was talking to but, when he snapped the phone closed, Shinji turned to face the bushes I was hiding behind "come on out"

I gasped quietly and moved back, uttering a curse "shimatta" Shinji, obviously not waiting for me to comply with his demand, shun-poed towards me. Avoiding the bush altogether Shinji stood before me, hands in the pockets of his school pants and cap covering his eyes

"any particular reason you were spying on a rather important meeting?" he moved his head so that one eye was shown, scouring my cloak-covered form for any hint of a name, possibly anything else useful

"the meeting didn't seem that important, only recruiting" I was very glad that my face still hidden by the edge of the cloak "and was that a hollow mask I saw? My, you really are a dangerous man" I smirked, knowing that he could see this

"you have no idea" he drew Sakanade from it's sheath and pointed it at me, the tip of the blade resting just above my chest

"actually I think I do. Shinji Hirako, previous Gobantai Taicho you were exiled along with seven others for gaining the powers of a hollow. You call every pretty woman you meet your 'first love' and Hiyori is the only one you didn't say this to and she beats you up constantly because of this…or at least she did" I peek up at Shinji under the hood and see that he's taken back by this

"how…?" Shinji growled and shook his head "so, we have a very well informed little Shinigami who has overheard a important conversation…what to do with you"

I scoot back a little and stand up "well since you need time to decide I think I'll just leave you to your own devices for now" I turn around but I can't even taken a step before a feel Sakanade at my neck

"and where do you think you're going?"

"home" Shinji grins and shakes his head, reaching for my hood. I duck under his grab and turn, mid Shun-Po, but Shinji grabs my shoulder and spins me around so that I'm pressed against the wall of the house with Sakanade hovering above my collarbone. Yelling from the street below distracted us both and, as Shinji's eyes flickered towards the noise, I melted in the other direction. I employed my fastest Shun-Po to escape from the situation but Shinji was perusing me, almost matching my speed.

* * *

I'm not proud to say that I fled but this was one fight I really didn't want to have. _I'm so sorry, you don't deserve me_ "you know Shinji, I heard that Kaori had something going on behind your back while she was with you" I pushed off the ground, avoiding a fatal shot but having a rather large, shallow cut on my thigh "I heard she was with Aizen the night she left" Shinji paused for a moment before releasing a pained growl and lunging at me again. Unfortunately my battle instincts took this moment to kick in and Hyoumu formed inside my cloak, merging into one large scythe. When Shinji lunged the second time I also lunged, slicing at him with the scythe and cutting him along his cheek. After that we were just a blur of sparks and colour. If he attacked I'd counter and attack him back, which he'd block and push me back before going in for another attack. It was like a dance, rhythmic and deadly, and only we knew the steps. Swiping at me I jumped over the blade and swung down, slicing Shinji in the shoulder.

It took a moment to register as Shinji clutched his shoulder and dropped his sword "you probably clipped a tendon or something" Kari said decidedly, viewing Shinji through my eyes. My first thought was to help him, which was quickly quashed by my desire to get away while he was still kneeling down but I acted on neither of these, bending down and running a finger down his check

"I'm so sorry Shinji. This shouldn't have happened" tightening my grip around Hyoumu I stood and Shun-poed away, a single tear falling as I did.

When I got back to the Shoten I didn't bother to change or heal myself, I just slipped into my Gigai and into the peace of dreams where I was haunted by nightmares of Shinji and Aizen.

* * *

Sighing, I lay with my eyes closed on the pillow of my futon as sunlight intruded in my room. I was still stiff from last night and I had some newly healed, red, raw scars across my body but the pain went away as I showered.

By the time I was dressed the new scar tissue had faded to a faint silvery line, like that of a scar years old. Walking out of the Shoten later that morning I was aware that I was roughly an hour early for school but I just needed some time to think, so I slipped in my ear buds and let my feet carry me where they wanted. This happened to be the park.

Dancing along to the music in the early morning fog I paused when I saw the state of the park, it really was a mess. Large craters covered the ground and multitudes of trees had been felled, by Sakanade or Hyoumu it was impossible to tell _Why? Why'd he let me escape? Shinji could have killed me easily in my hesitance but he didn't…_ it was confusing defiantly but I couldn't exactly go up to him today and say 'Hey, it was a good fight last night but I was wondering, why'd you let me leave?'

I let out a frustrated sigh and started to walk through the park, picking my way through the rubble, I don't notice Shinji until I almost walk into him.

Seeing a pair of feet just in front of me I stop and look up straight into a pair of sad, grey eyes "Hitsumori-san, what're ya doin' here?"

"I woke up early and decided to go for a walk" I said, pulling out one ear bud, looking around. Shinji was standing in the midst of a highly destroyed area of the park and, looking around, I noticed that a huge chunk had been taken out of the side of a near by fountain, letting the pooling water escape and turn the grass into a muddy soup-like consistency, and both the pavement and earth had large cracks and dents in it.

"ah" checking "what're you listening to?"

_I'm looking at you through the glass...  
Don't know how much time has passed  
Oh, god it feels like forever  
But no one ever tells you that forever  
Feels like home sitting all alone inside your head_

"Through glass by stone sour" I say quietly checking my phone for the time. Slipping my phone back into a pocket and sighing _if I can't Shun-Po then it'll take about...twenty-five minutes to walk to the school. Damn_ "I think it would be best if we start walking, unless you want to be late…" I grin and start walking, climbing on top of one of the larger tree-trunks I turn and look at the statuesque Vizard

_How do you feel? That is the question  
But I forget.. you don't expect an easy answer  
When something like a soul becomes  
Initialized and folded up like paper dolls and little notes  
You can't expect a bit of hope  
So while you're outside looking in  
Describing what you see  
Remember what you're staring at is me_

"are you coming or not?"

"Hai, Gaki" once Shinji started walking I turned and jumped off the trunk, turning off my I-pod and putting it in my bag. I waited for him, just out of view in a huge clump of leaves, and jumped out at him when he jumped over the trunk and laughed at his reaction. The trunk of the tree had hidden me from view quite well, not hard since I was quite short, so it gave me time to hide and I was quite used to pulling in my Reiatsu so I'm quite hard to spot, my green hair just adds to the illusion.

_Cause I'm looking at you through the glass...  
Don't know how much time has passed  
All I know is that it feels like forever  
When no one ever tells you that forever  
Feels like home, sitting all alone inside your head_

When Shinji walked past, trying to spot me I grabbed his shoulder and watched him jump. I saw the his hand sing to the place the Sakanade would usually sit, while his other hand snapped to grab my hand and prepare to toss me over his shoulder but he looked over his shoulder when I started laughing "gaki" Shinji turned and looked at me for a moment before grinning slightly.

_How much is real? So much to question  
An epidemic of the mannequins  
Contaminating everything  
When thought came from the heart  
It never did right from the start  
Just listen to the noises  
(Null and void instead of voices)  
Before you tell yourself  
It's just a different scene  
Remember it's just different from what you've seen_

The same old sensation came, the stomach butterflies and slight tingling. I had to stop this before I blushed, I could see something stirring in his eyes "urusai" I pulled my hand out of his grasp and grabbed his wrist, pulling him along. This actually hid the slight rosiness on my cheeks, muttering "we better get going"

Shinji walked next to me, peering intently at my face "are you…?you are" he sounded smug

"am I…?"

"am I that good Hitsumori-san? I made you blush" he grinned evilly at me, sounding gleeful

"che, don't get to smug"

He just chuckled

_I'm looking at you through the glass...  
Don't know how much time has passed  
And all I know is that it feels like forever  
When no one ever tells you that forever  
Feels like home, sitting all alone inside your head_

Walking out of the park and onto a side street we were asking each other questions about our families, our pasts and things of relevance.

"so what was your father like?" I looked at Hina out of the corner of my eye as we turned onto the main road through Karakura

"Tou-san was the strong, goofy type. He was the rock of the family - he still is - and he tried to always there when people needed him, his job didn't exactly allow for many vacations or sudden bouts of leave" I manoeuvred my features into a slight frown, figuring that her father was in something important like the army or the government. Hina sighed and continued "tou-san was in the army, quite high up the chain of command as well, so he always tried to keep his tone light when he was with us and he was fun but firm with his subordinates and co-workers. He was the kind of person that was really hard to dislike so that, mixed with strength, tact and pure power, was how he went so fast up the ranks…" Hina's fringe hid her eyes and it was amazing how alike Hina and Kaori looked _"Shinji, this is bad for you"_

_Sakanade you know what I'm like with people that look like her…I just have to make sure_

"_and it's exactly that idea that's breaking you up from the inside. Piece. By. Piece"_

_yeah, but you know that isn't going to stop me_ ever since Kaori had disappeared those few centuries ago I'd been searching for her everywhere. I hadn't stopped and I wasn't planning to until I saw her for myself and made sure she was ok…after what Urihara had told the captains that horrible night it was something I had to do

"_and how many times had that damnable man lied to someone's face without batting an eyelid?"_ it was quite a valid question actually, one that I couldn't help but wonder about sometimes.

"he sounds like a brilliant person. Which army was he in?" I surprised myself, being honestly curious about this girls dead father. I hadn't had this much of a connection with anyone since Kaori herself and it was almost comforting to think that this could finally end _"don't get your hopes up. Remember Tokyo"_

"I honestly don't think you'll know it-…" it was amazing how fate can conspire against you so completely sometimes. I was about to ask something when, out of the blue, Rukia shows up

"Hitsumori-san, Hirako-san" both Hina and I turned, spotting the owner of the vice a way behind us. Waiting patiently for her I examined her reiatsu and found that it was one that had been around town a lot, around Ichigo a lot as well

"Kuchiki-san, how are you this morning?" Hina asked once the Shinigami was standing just in front of her

"I'm fine Hitsumori-san. I was about to ask you the same thing" The Kuchiki girl peered at her forehead and blinked "the swellings gone. That's good" _Swelling? what could have happened?_

"yeah, it was gone this morning" Hina turned to me and she could obviously see that I was confused because she smiled "I had a fainting session yesterday and smacked my head on the table" I could see that she didn't believe that for a second but I couldn't ask what was going on with the Kuchiki girl there _I will get to the bottom of this…even if it doesn't mean anything_

* * *

Shinji - *gaping* wow…

Max - *proudly looking at the story and smiling*I know right….

Ichigo - *eating a cookie*

Max - Where'd you get that?

Ichigo - …over there…*points over his shoulder to a pile of cookies*

Shinji - *drools and shun-pos towards the cookies*

Max - *Shun-pos next to Shinji and grabs the cookies, covering them up* No

Shinji and Ichigo - But-…

Max - Nope

Shinji and Ichigo - *puppy-dog eyes* but-…

Max - No. These are for the reviewers

Shinji and Ichigo - *look at each other and walk away, their heads together*

Max - *warily* Those two are plotting something…


	3. A Fan And A Club

Max - Welcome back to another addition of 'Hollow Half'. We don't have anything really important to say so please enjoy the chapter.

Shinji - Max doesn't own Bleach or any of it's characters, just the ones she makes up.

* * *

"**Hello"** - Shows that the speaker is talking to a Hollow.

"_Hello"_ - Shows that the speaker is talking to a Zanpakuto.

_Hello_ - Shows that the speaker is thinking

* * *

As we walked into the classroom I heard someone coming up from behind us and turned just in time to see Orihime run into the classroom "ohayo, Kurosaki-kun" she had a large smile on her face and was waving at the orange-haired boy. Shinji walked in a moment later "ohayo, Ichigo-kun" He too was grinning and waving to Ichigo, who looked at the two with a odd expression on his face

"ohayo… ano…Hirako-kun" Orihime turned to Shinji and smiled

"yes! You remembered my name. good morning Orihime-chan" Shinji exclaims this loudly as he hugs Orihime and more of the class are watching now, some going as far as to interfere. There people included Keigo Asano, who pointed at Shinji with a horrified expression

"wait just a damn minute"

"what's up, what's with all the noise? And who the hell are you?" Shinji turned to Keigo with a slight scowl, looking over his shoulder at the brown haired boy. Keigo took this differently because, instead of flinching away from the gaze he started yelling

"who the hell are you, you say? What's with you the one talking like 'I'm the one that goes way back with these guys'? I'm the one that goes way back with these guys"

Mizuiro appeared behind Keigo and asked "already mortally wounded are we?"

"more like get your hands of her! She's obviously uncomfortable" Keigo hadn't stopped yelling at Shinji who actually looked quite bored. He turned to Keigo and put a hand around Orihime's shoulders while he talked to the teen, not noticing Orihime looking from Shinji, to his hand, back to him

"are you stupid? If she was uncomfortable then she would have screamed or punched me by now. Orihime's silence proves that she's not uncomfortable right Orihime-chan?"

"what's up with the holier-than-thou attitude? You're the one that's acting badly! R-Right? I'm right aren't I? Keigo looked to the rest of the class for support in this and almost had his shoulder crushed by Chizuru ho didn't look to happy with Shinji right now

"it's okay, you're right. Leave this to me Keigo"

"C-Chizuru-sempai" Keigo looked fearfully at the girl as she pushed him out of the way and started yelling at Shinji herself

" Orihime is a nice girl! A girl who cannot make an unpleasant face even if she's treated unpleasantly. The world has no need for fools who do not understand this and indiscriminately attempt to hug her"

Keigo looked at the scene in front of him and I couldn't hold in the chuckle that escaped when he pointed out the fault in Chizuru's rant "um it's one thing to talk like that to an ally, but by your own logic you'd be the first one to die"

Chizuru ignored the boy and kept yelling "with these hands, death will be served to such swine! It's my killer move: Chizuru Genoci-"

Keigo reached out with one hand, though he didn't step forward "there's no need to kill him!"

Ichigo got up from his desk and walked past Shinji, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him outside as he did "come here Hirako" Chizuru looked confused, coming immediately out of her genocide mode

"huh? What the…? What's with Ichigo? Was he always short tempered like that?" she looked confused, as did Keigo and Mizuiro who appeared behind her.

Keigo stuttered out a scared "i-Ichigo" as the door was pushed closed. I sighed and took a seat at my desk, waiting for Foreign language to start and for both Ichigo and Shinji to come back into the classroom.

Ichigo and Shinji walked back into the room, taking their seats just as Ochi-sensei walked into the room and greeted the class "Ohayō Minna-san"

"Ohayō Ochi-sensei" the class replied politely and in almost perfect unison.

"today we'll be using the cooking room and try our hand at using foreign utensils" the class erupted into an exited chatter and I just looked out of the window with a bored expression great…

Following Ochi-sensei to the cooking room the class was having a series of mini conversations, mostly about what happened just before class started

"…have you ever seen Ichigo act that way?"

"…I wonder if they're secretly going out or something, Orihime and Ichigo I mean…"

"…maybe. Or maybe Shinji did something to Ichigo before school or yesterday sometime…"

These people are clueless aren't they? They have no idea of what's really out there

"and that's probably a good thing. Imagine what would happen if everyone found out about the wars being fought out of sight but in plain view, it would create pandemonium"

Yeah but it's so frustrating sometimes I couldn't help but fume silently as I turned into the cooking room, which smelled strongly of eggs and bacon. I couldn't help but think sarcasticaly won't this be fun?

It was two students to a desk and Shinji took the seat next to me, grinning "you look happy" I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye as I stated this

"ah well Hitsumori-chan it's been a good morning"

"I'm guessing Ichigo's yelling spree didn't go like he planned" it was more of an observation than a question, Ichigo had come back into the room scowling worse than before and Shinji was grinning smugly

"nope"

"alright students enjoy your meal. Think of this as a learning session and a free meal" Ochi-sensei was smiling, watching the class as a few people, myself and Shinji included, picked up the utensils and started eating while a few others took a guess, glancing at how others were doing it.

Cutting off a piece of egg I stabbed it with the fork and put it in my mouth, chewing slowly, aware of the glances that the others gave me as they tried to figure out how to use the fork and knife and I couldn't help but think how glad I was that it was Friday_._

Walking from the cooking room towards the next class I sighed, bored. Hearing a whispered conversation just in front of me I looked up, seeing Ichigo, Orihime and Rukia.

"…but it might be nice, they haven't made any friends yet" Orihime said quietly, looking from Ichigo to Rukia

"except with each other…" Ichigo said flatly

"they're probably feeling nervous about being in a new place" Rukia said "it could be nice but there's a good chance they'll say no"

"yeah, but it'd still be nice to ask"

"yeah…" Ichigo sounded non-committal about it but it looked like Orihime smiled

I slowed for a moment, giving the three teens time to get further ahead of me. When I walked into foreign language class Orihime smiled and stood up, walking over to me "Hitsumori-san"

"Inoue-san" I couldn't help but smile a little at her exuberant expression

"I was wondering if you wanted to come out clubbing with us tonight?"

"who's us?"

"Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-Chan, Arisawa-chan, Sado-kun, Ishida-Kun, Kojima-Kun, Asano-kun, Abarai-Kun and there are some friends from out of town joining us as well. We were also hoping that Hirako-san would also join us" well there's certainly no worry about hollows with so many Shinigami around… I could guess who the 'friends from out of town' were, Hitsugaya-taicho and his team, and that wasn't good for me. I scratched the back of my head and shrugged "Clubbing isn't really my thing but I'll give it a shot"

"arigatou, Hitsumori-san" Orihime smiled and turned to walk back to Ichigo and his friends

"Inoue-san" Orihime paused, turning back towards me "I never was one for formalities and I'd like to consider you my friend so you really don't have to be so formal" Orihime blinked once then smiled happily

"Alright. I'll call you Hina-chan from now on. You don't have to be so formal with me now either" I nodded, smiling, and Orihime went back to Ichigo and his group.

Sitting at my desk I watched with an amused expression as Orihime also invited Shinji. His exuberant reply was great to watch, especially with Ichigo scowling at the grinning man before he released Orihime from the hug he had pulled her into and walked over to me, taking a seat and watching me out of the corner of his eyes as the teacher walked into the room and the class started.

The day sped by quickly, a blur of colour and sound that slipped quickly into the back of my mind. At lunch Chizuru had tried to grope Orihime, an apparently normal greeting for the orange haired girl, and got beaten down by Tatsuki, again apparently normal. After school Rukia had dragged Ichigo off somewhere to fight hollows, or at least that was the assumption from the things that a few students were saying so the other Shinigami are here now. Perfect I thought sourly as I slid open the door to the Urihara Shoten and took of my shoes before I stepped onto the raised platform leading to the living space at the back of the shop. I could hear people talking loudly from the meeting room but I ignored them as I walked past, sliding open the screen door to my bedroom I slid it closed after me and placed my bag on a desk in the corner of the room by the window.

Having changed into a pair of black jeans and a plain, white tank top I plaited my hair. Tying the braid off I slipped the door open again and walked down the hall, turning the corner just as the Shinigami exited the meeting room.

A bald man carrying a wooden sword walked out first Ikkaku…, talking with a guy that had short black hair that was almost in a bob-cut …Yumichika…, next walked out a short white haired boy …Toshiro… who was yelling at a woman with a very large chest and long, wavy ginger hair Matsumoto. Damn it then Renji, Rukia, Urihara, Yoruichi and Tessai exited, the Shoji screen sliding closed behind Urihara "Ah, Hina-chan" with a flourish Urahara pulled out his fan and I could tell that he was grinning from behind it. Everyone turned to look at me as I walked up to Urahara and grinned sweetly "Urahara…" he didn't get a chance to reply as I took his fan, snapped it shut, whacked him around the head with it and stuffed it in my back pocket, pulling down the bottom of my tank top to cover the top of the irritating fan. Walking down the hall I couldn't help but grin as I heard the Shinigami all chattering behind me loudly, asking who I was or commenting on the fact that I stole Urihara's fan well I did warn him.

Grasping the handle of a wooden broom I started sweeping the floor of the shop. Working my way silently to the front door I watched quietly as the Shinigami left the shop, talking briefly to Urahara before walking out of the courtyard, Shun-poing away when they were out of sight. Urahara waited a moment more before making his way back into the shop, I was gone before he even turned around. Using shun-po I sped down the ladder into the training facility, pulling the fan out of my back pocket and moving quickly around the room, pausing every once in a while to give the illusion of hiding the fan.

In all honesty I had found the final hiding place while Shun-poing around, a rock that was quite unassuming in appearance and seemed to be quite solid, but actually had a hollow crevice in the side of the rock that was shown by a thin crack near the bas of the formation. Every time I Shun-poed past I pushed the fan a little further into the crack, speeding towards the entrance only when I heard the fan hit the bottom of the crevice.

Pulling down the trapdoor I turned, grinning slightly when I saw Kisuke in the doorway "I did tell, you" I shrugged as I walked past, glancing at the front of the shop when Renji and Rukia's voices could be heard, arguing loudly.

Walking into the front of the shop Rukia stopped her argument, hitting Renji upside the head, and turned to me "We came to pick you up but you've still got to get ready" I nodded

"I won't be long" I turned and raced down the hall, sliding open my door, grabbing my towel and closing the bathroom door behind me.

Taking a five-minute shower I towelled myself off as I walked over to my wardrobe, swinging open the door to reveal the dress hanging against the door. Letting the towel fall around my feet I pulled out a black Bra and panty set before reaching into the wardrobe, pulling out the hanger with the dress. The dress was a black, knee-length halter neck with a flaring, silky skirt and a top section that looked like it was made only of interwoven, silky, black ribbons. Slipping on a pair of strappy, black heels I walked back into the bathroom to apply some make-up, a little mascara and eye-liner, some lip-gloss and some black eye-shadow. Walking back out of the bathroom I snagged my towel with my finger, hanging it back up on it's hook. Grabbing my wallet I put it in a slim pocket in the side of the dress, a sneaky pocket that was made for times like this, and pulled on a black hooded jacket ten minutes… I couldn't help but smile as I pulled on a thin watch and walked back down the hall and into the main shop. I jumped off the platform and walked over to Rukia and Renji, smiling "shall we go? Rukia nodded and started walking, dragging a gaping Renji behind her.

* * *

Walking to Ichigo's house was actually rather fun I thought to myself as Rukia knocked on the strawberry's door. We had met up with Orihime, Tatsuki, Chad, Uryuu, Toshiro, Matsumoto and Shinji on the way to Ichigo's house an we were now only waiting for Keigo, Mizuiro and the other Shinigami to arrive. The door opened and a young girl stood in the doorway. She had short, light brown hair, large brown eyes and was wearing an apron "yuzu-chan, who is it?"

A man with short, black hair and a thin beard appeared behind the girl, Yuzu, and smiled "ah, you must be here to pick up Ichigo. Come on in"

"is that…?"

It is…

The man was Isshin Kurosaki, the previous captain of squad 10. Only 100 years ago it was said that Isshin went to the World of the Living to be with a woman of Shinigami decent with no recorded powers. Over time Isshin fell off the grid, loosing his powers and only retaining his long life-span damnit

Isshin was giving me an odd look and, as I walked through the door, he put a hand on my shoulder "do I know you from somewhere"

I shook my head, smiling slightly "My name is Hina Hitsumori. Hajimemashite"

"Hajimemashite Hitsumori-san" look appeared in Isshin's eye and I could tell that didn't bode well for me, or my disguise. Walking into the main room I spotted Ichigo talking to Rukia and Renji. He wore ripped black jeans, a tight white shirt and a black vest jacket, mixing well with Renji's black jeans, black tank top and black jacket. Rukia wore a pair of jean mini-shorts, black wedge heels and a black, off the shoulder top with poufy sleeves, a slit in each sleeve revealing skin from her elbow to her upper arm. Orihime was talking to Matsumoto, her white v-neck top with a black jacket, black ruffled mini-skirt, red belt and crimson wedge-heels going well with Matsumoto's crimson halter neck, black mini-skirt and black strappy heels, a black jacket well those two defiantly shopped together…

Tatsuki was talking with Karin about something, her grey jacket was held in a hand and Tatsuki pulled something out of her black jean mini-shorts, handing it to the younger girl and grinning slightly.

I felt something on my shoulder and turned to see Shinji, a large grin on his lips and a hand on my shoulder "ya look good Hitsumori-chan"

"arigatou. You don't have to be so formal you know, I never did like formality" Shinji took his hand from my shoulder and nodded, pushing his grey long-coat back and hooking his thumb on the pocket of his white jeans

"neither do I" a second knock at the door and Isshin appears a moment later with Keigo and Mizuiro in tow. Keigo, in a plain orange top, black jacket and grey jeans, stopped talking to Mizuiro and just gaped, most likely at the women in the room. Snapping out of his momentary reverie he turned to Mizuiro and grabbed his shoulder grinning "Mizuiro, when all the other guys see us hanging out with these four hotties they'll be so jealous" Mizuiro pinched Keigo's hand, ignoring his pained protest, and straightened out his jacket. The grey fabric of his jacket had gotten quite creased when Keigo, in his hyper-active reverie, had started to shake him "sorry about him. He's been bouncing all the way here"

"it's alright Kojima-san. Shall we go?" I offered a hand to Keigo but he waved it away, getting up easily. Toshiro walked past me, his white jacket was open enough to reveal his plain black top, black skinny-jeans and cream coloured shoes completing the look I wonder if Matsumoto got to dress him up too? I waited for Uryuu to go past before walking out of the room, Uryuu's long, white jacket was open, and his blue skinny jeans made his long legs look even longer "is that possible though?" I smiled, waving goodbye to Ichigo's sisters and father as I walked out of the Kurosaki house.

Following the other's down the street the walk was anything quiet, Renji, Ichigo and Rukia were arguing about something, Keigo and Mizuiro were talking about something or other, Uryuu, Chad, Matsumoto, Toshiro, Shinji and I made up the quieter portion of the group, watching with amusement as the other's argued. "Asano, where are Madarame and Ayasegawa?"

"hmm? Oh, they didn't want to come. Madarame-san said that he didn't go clubbing and Ayasegawa-san said that going clubbing 'wasn't a beautiful thing to do'" Toshiro nodded in understanding, murmuring something to Matsumoto.

It took about ten minutes to reach the club, by which time the sun had already set, and there was quite a line outside the club already perfect. Waiting about ten more minutes to get in, then defending Toshiro's and Rukia's ages against the bouncers speculations we eventually got into the club. The club was called Nightwalk and it was the most popular one in town.

A large dance floor took up most of the club with a DJ booth in one corner and a bar running the length of one of the walls "sugoi…" the club was relatively new, only about three dayss old, and it was already the hottest spot in Karakura for a party.

Walking though the crowds I made my way to the bar, swaying along with the song

_I know it's not me  
Take a look inside me  
I'm sick of these ways  
So sick of these games  
Couldn't see it 'til I multiplied you  
Call me a freak  
But I don't hear the words you speak  
I'm takin' control  
Just lettin' you know  
That I won't get sucked in by you_

I sometimes wish that I could fly  
Hold me tight in your arms tonight  
Sick of livin' inside a lie, alright  
I can't count the times I've tried  
Stand alone just to lift you high  
You're my answer to the question why  
(Why)

Breaking out of the crowd I found Ichigo, Renji and Rukia already ordering drinks while Shinji was sitting on one of the bar stools with a drink in hand. I was walking over to the blond man when another man walked up to me "hey there, you wanna dance?" he smelled faintly of alcohol but he didn't look flushed so I nodded, allowing him to take my hand and lead me back into the swaying throng of bodies.

_Haunt me if you want me  
But I'll warn you  
If you ever step to me_

Again, you try to control me  
But ya can't hold me  
You don't own me  
If you ever step to me

The man with the spiky black hair lead me to the almost middle of the dance floor and we started to dance "so what's your name?" he breathed in my ear as he held me close and grinding into me from behind

"Hina"

"pretty name. 'm Zaka"

_I know you'll be there  
To see the tables turning  
Wake up tomorrow  
And watch the bridges burning_

I can see  
I can see it in your eyes  
I can feel  
I can feel it in my mind  
I don't care  
I don't care if you realize  
What you see  
What you see in my eyes

Zaka spun me round and round and I eventually just let the music take me, the faster beat sweeping me into a almost animal sensuality which Zaka returned with a grinning fervour. The blue and red lights spreading over the swaying mass of bodies, the music reverberating from the walls and the subtle under-tone of sweat and alcohol was almost mesmerising.

_I'm over me being under you  
I'm breaking free and I'm breaking through  
I've overcome all, I'm underneath  
I can finally stand  
I can finally breathe_

Remember when we  
First had the thought of living  
A perfect picture  
But I did all the giving  
Gave up my passions  
To try to make you happy  
The joke is over  
And I'll do all the laughing

The song was coming to a close and I was coming down from my high, coming back to earth. I pouted a little as the last lines of the song were blared from the speakers and the song faded away

"mind if I have the next dance?" I looked to my right and saw a man with spiky blond hair wearing skinny jeans and a black vest-jacket, no top on. I nodded and waved to Zaka, turning as another woman was claimed by the man for a dance.

The electric guitar came in strong and I grinned, swaying erratically with the beat.

_I can see  
I can see it in your eyes  
I can feel  
I can feel it in my mind  
I don't care  
I don't care if you realize  
What you see  
What you see in my eyes_

I'm over me being under you  
I'm breaking free and I'm breaking through  
I've overcome all, I'm underneath  
I can finally stand  
I can finally breathe!  
I can breathe!

Again I was pulled close, grinded into from the back but this time I was grinded from the front as well, Zaka came and joined our little dance. Iit was getting a little claustrophobic trapped between the two men and, with a little fancy footwork I disappeared into the crowd, being entrapped in a third dance partners grip.

_I can see  
I can see it in your eyes  
I can feel  
I can feel it in my mind  
I don't care  
I don't care if you realize  
What you see  
What you see, my eyes!_

I'm over me being under you  
I'm breaking free and I'm breaking through  
I've overcome all, I'm underneath  
I can finally stand  
I can finally breathe

_I'm over me being under you  
I'm breaking free and I'm breaking through  
I've overcome all, I'm underneath  
I can finally stand  
I can finally breathe..._

This man had long, electric blue hair and a feral grin which I couldn't help but return. This man was rougher than the first two and it was kind of uncomfortable but I was pulled away by Zaka is he following me? Zaka seemed to enjoy grinding against me "hey, mind if I cut in?" I looked up and saw blond hair and a long white jacket

"Shinji?"

"course. Who else" Shinji scowled at Zaka who had stopped grinding himself against me but now had his arm tight around my shoulders. I tried to step towards the blond man but I couldn't, Zaka's arm was around me tight damn grabbing Zaka's wrist I pulled it back until it was back as far as it would go, causing Zaka's arm to move back as I kept pushing and, stepping out of his embrace, I stepped up to Shinji and smiled.

Shinji grinned at me and reached to grab my hand "come on. Ya' look like ya' need a drink" Shinji pulled me away from the scowling Zaka and through the throbbing masses towards the bar, pushing me gently into a empty seat and taking the one next to it for himself. Ordering two martini's he paid for the drinks and rested his arms on the table, watching out of the corner of his eye as I spun the chair around, facing the dancing masses "you looked like you were enjoying yourself"

"hmmm?" I looked at Shinji, my elbows resting on the bench behind me

"you looked like you were enjoying yourself out there"

"yeah. I like clubbing only for the dancing, the drunk and horny guys I can do without" this got a chuckle from the blond who nudged my elbow and handed me a vibrant green drink which smelled of apple and alcohol "arigatou. So what about you?"

"what about me?" Shinji stirred his drink absentmindedly with the piece of apple on the cocktail stick

"Why did you come clubbing tonight?"

"well it was either go clubbing or be violently bored tonight" I chuckled, picking up my cocktail stick and crunching down on the apple piece at the end "I don't usually go clubbing but I didn't have anything better to do"

"ah" I nodded in understanding, taking a sip of my drink. Smiling at the slight burning sensation of the alcohol I looked to my right, spotting Ichigo and Renji sitting further down the bar having a drinking competition, Rukia was the judge by the looks of things.

Finishing my drink I set the empty glass on the table, next to three other martini glasses and a multitude of shot glasses, grinning happily as another song came on over the speakers "come-on, let's dance" I grabbed Shinji's arm and towed him off his chair and out onto the dance-floor

"Hina-Chan…" he groaned out unhappily "yer' not gonna make me dance…are ya"

"yep" pulling him into the mass of dancers I stop and turn around, starting to sway to the electronic beat. Shinji was dancing stiffly and didn't look very comfortable, that wasn't good enough.

_Here we go again  
I kinda wanna be more then friends  
So take it easy on me  
I'm afraid you're never satisfied_

_Here we go again,  
We're sick like animals we play pretend  
You're just a cannibal and I'm afraid I won't get out alive  
No I won't sleep tonight_

_Oh, oh I want some more  
Oh, oh what are you waiting for?  
Take a bite of my heart tonight_

Pulling the blond close I swayed against him and that seemed to loosen him up, just a little. Moving close to him, I whispered in his ear "come on Shinji, loosen up. Dance with me" moving back I smiled at the slight flush on his cheeks and the shit-eating grin on his lips. Shinji loosened up a little more and his dancing became smoother, more streamlined that's better smiling to myself I moved with him.

_Oh, oh I want some more  
Oh, oh what are you waiting for?_

_What are you waiting for?  
Take a bite of my heart tonight_

_Here we are again,  
I feel the chemicals kicking in  
Its getting heavy and I want run and hide, I want to run and hide_

_I do it every time  
You're killing me now,  
And I won't be denied by you,  
The animal inside of you_

Our moves were smoothly running into one another and I could honestly say that I hadn't had such a good partner in a long time "whoa, he never was this good…"

No, never… I couldn't help but smile as Shinji moved closer to me, his forehead touching mine. The buzz of the alcohol was kicking in but it couldn't hide the pain that I was starting to feel from this closeness, from knowing it would never be the same as it was before.

_Oh, oh I want some more  
Oh, oh what are you waiting for  
Take a bite of my heart tonight_

_Oh, oh I want some more  
Oh, oh what are you waiting for?_

_What are you waiting for?  
Take a bite of my heart tonight_

_Hush, hush the world is quiet  
Hush, hush we both can't fight it  
Its us that made this mess  
Why can't you understand_

_Oh I won't sleep tonight, I won't sleep tonight_

My smile turned slightly bitter as the alcohol clouded my mind slowly. The beat wasn't slowing down and Shinji looked like he was in a dancing state of mind now, swaying sensually to the beat

_Here we go again (here we go again)_

_Oh, oh I want some more  
Oh, oh what are you waiting for?  
Take a bite of my heart tonight_

_Oh, oh I want some more  
Oh, oh what are you waiting for?_

_What are you waiting for?_

_What are you waiting…_

_Here we go again, oh oh (here we go again)_

_oh oh (here we go again)  
Say goodbye to my heart tonight_

_Oh, oh I want some more  
Oh, oh what are you waiting for?  
What are you waiting for?  
Say goodbye to my heart tonight_

The music slowly died out and the light left Shinji's eyes just a little. We were pressed together with our foreheads touching and our alcohol-tainted breath mingling. Shinji's normally straight and orderly corn coloured hair was messy and his face was flushed but he was grinning like a mad-man. One of his thin, strong arms lipped around my waist and he leaned forward just a little but I put a hand on his chest, just over his fast-beating heart.

Pushing a little Shinji released me and I mumbled something about needing air before disappearing into the crowd. The club had transformed the roof into a place to rest and sober up a little, high walls had been placed around the roof so no-one fell of and seats had been placed around the area. I stalked across the roof and seated myself on a long bench, resting my head in my hands and groaning in pain.

My head was thumping uncomfortably and I had an errant thought that maybe someone spiked my drink but Kari quickly shot that theory down with a scoffing laugh.

Miki sounded happy_ "hey, you don't look so depressed now. It was a blizzard just before but it's just snowing now" _Hyoumu's twin spirits were Yuki and Miki. They looked about ten years old and were twins, Miki was the blue twin; hair, eyes, clothes, and Yuki was the silver twin.

"sorry"

"_no worries, we understand. we'd be more worried if you weren't affected after that dance with Shinji-kun. Especially after…"_ no-one liked mentioning the time period around my exit from the Seireitei it depressed us all. Yuki's sentence tapered off and, in that silence, I heard footsteps coming my way across the roof.

Looking up I saw Shinji standing with one hand on the edge of the seat and the other in his jeans pocket "are you okay?"

"yeah, I'm fine" I muttered, looking out across the artificially lit city. Being around Shinji still put me on edge, though I showed it more when I was drunk apparently

"you don't look ok, you look kind of green" I pointed up, motioning towards the green-tinged light above me. Shinji just chuckled, taking a seat next to me.

* * *

The music was reverberating through the floor and it seemed to be beating in time to my head. It had been hours since Shinji and I sat, talking on the roof and we were now back in the thick of it. Sitting at the bar with a drink in my hand I was still surprisingly lucid for the amount of Alcohol I had drunk and, hearing another good song come on over the speakers I downed my drink, set the glass on the bar and grabbed the arm of the nearest person, dragging them out to dance. It turned out to be Shinji once again.

"okay people, it's ten minute to two and that's when we close so, unfortunately, this'll be the last song of the night" this got a series of unhappy, drunken boo's from the dancers but it was quickly ruled out once the music started

_I admit that in the past I've been a nasty  
They weren't kidding when they called me kinda strange  
But you'll find that nowadays  
I've mended all my ways  
Repented, seen the light, and made a change  
And I fortunately know a little secret  
It's a talent that I always have possessed  
And dear lady, please don't laugh  
I use it on behalf  
Of the miserable, the lonely, and depressed (pathetic)_

We swayed to the music together for the third or fourth time tonight, both being drunker and drunker each time. I pulled him into a series of moves that were quite badly done thanks to the drinking.

_Poor unfortunate souls  
In pain  
In need  
This one longing to be thinner  
That one wants to get the girl  
And do I help them?  
Yes, indeed!  
Those poor unfortunate souls  
So sad  
So true  
They come flocking to me crying  
"Will you help us, pretty please?"  
And I help them!  
Yes I do!  
_

I stumbled into Shinji, cursing myself for wearing heels. Shinji wrapped his arms around me tightly for the second time tonight and I felt my already warm cheeks burn.

_The men up there don't like a lot of blabber  
They think a girl who gossips is a bore!  
Yes on land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word  
And after all dear, what is idle prattle for?  
They're not all that impressed with conversation  
True gentlemen avoid it when they can  
But they dote and swoon and fawn  
On ladies who withdrawn  
It's she who holds her tongue who gets a man_

Shinji had taken off his jacket, leaving it in the care of Toshiro who wasn't drinking, and the top buttons of his shirt along with his tie had come loose, revealing the top of his well toned chest. I brought a hand up and rested it on Shinji's chest, applying a slight pressure, and this prompted Shinji to only tighten his grip on me _" the_ _union of two souls in pain"_

_I am the cause of his pain though…and my own_

_Poor unfortunate souls  
Go ahead!  
Make your choice!  
I'm a very busy person and I haven't got all day  
It won't cost much  
Just your voice!  
Those poor unfortunate souls  
So sad  
So true  
If you wanna cross the bridge, my sweet  
You've got the pay the toll  
Take a gulp  
Take a breath  
Go ahead  
Sign the scroll  
Nick and Kevin  
Now I've got her, boys  
The boss is on a roll  
You poor unfortunate souls_

"Shinji-kun…" Shinji had his head buried at the base of my neck. I felt something wet drip down over my collarbone and Shinji muttered something, sounding suspiciously like "I'm so sorry"

_So this is what Shinji's like when he's drunk now…_ I was assaulted by brief flashes of happier times, times when Shinji was the same drunk or sober and I automatically wrapped my arms around his wide lean shoulders

_In pain  
In need  
This one longing to be thinner  
That one wants to get the girl  
And do I help them?  
Yes, indeed!  
Those poor unfortunate souls  
So sad  
So true  
They come flocking to me crying  
"Will you help us, pretty please?"  
And I help them!  
Yes I do!_

Those poor unfortunate souls

"we should go…" I whisper, buried in the crook of his neck "come on' pulling back slightly I look up at Shinji, offering a small smile. His eyes were red, his face was flushed and he had a stupidly sad grin on his face. Out of instinct I grabbed his hand and smiled again before leading him through the crowds towards the bar.

Toshiro had just handed Shinji back his jacket when the lights slowly came back on. It wasn't so sudden that it made your eyes burn but the lights still came on fast enough to make you cringe in pain. Grumbling unhappily our group joined the mobs of people streaming outside and, turning right, headed back towards Ichigo's house. Sometime during the walk back to Ichigo's house Shinji had fallen asleep and was now leaning on me. It wasn't uncomfortable because Shinji was heavy; he was actually rather light, it could have been because he was over half a meter taller than me and it was also probably became of the history but it seemed that **"so basically, when you're drunk things like that don't matter and you say that you'll take a guy home when you actually don't know where he lives and are being almost pushed over because he's so tall?"**

_Yeah, yeah. I know now stop talking, your making my head hurt_ I sulked, deciding on a snap decision to take him back to the Shoten for the night.

I walked slowly down the street by the river, having the semi-conscious Vizard leaning over my shoulder.

* * *

Songs Used:

Step to Me by Thousand Foot Krutch

Over & Under By Egypt Central

Poor unfortunate souls by The Jonas Brothers

* * *

Max - Ok, I'd like to thank everyone for the reviews, favourites and alerts…

Shinji - *confused* But wasn't there…?

Max - Exactly *crosses arms*

Ichigo - *confused* Huh?

Max - no-one reviewed, Favourite or Alerted for the last chapter and I'm so disappointed…

Ichigo - oh…so we can have the biscuits then?

Max - Got ahead. People, you know the drill

Ichigo & Shinji - *Eating cookies*


	4. Fighting for the Truth

Max - And we're back

Shinji & Ichigo - *Waves while reading chapter script*

Max - *Sighs*

Shinji - WHAT?

Max - *looks up, startled* huh?

Ichigo - What're you so worked up about?

Shinji - *Storms out only to get dragged back in by Hiyori*

Max - Thanks Hiyori

Hiyori - Someone needs to keep this idiot in line

Shinji - Hey! *is ignored*

Max - So true

Hiyori - *Smacks Shinji around the head with a sandal before walking away*

Shinji - Where's she going now?

All - *A scream for mercy is heard and everyone winces*

Max - *Shakes head and crosses arms*poor Kisuke. Oh well

Kisuke - *Runs past* Save me! *dodges random flying objects*

Max - Oh well. Ichigo

Ichigo - *Watching Hiyori and Kisuke*what now?

Max - Disclaimer please

Ichigo - Max doesn't own Bleach or any of it's characters, only the ones she makes up

* * *

KHFFROKSMISOKS XD: Thanks and it's too late, they got them in the end...The whole story behind the story is coming soon, though not in this chapter or the next one ^^

FallenAngelFox: Thankyou, I hope you like it ^^

KuroiNeko72: Thankyou ^^

Alex274: It's a mystery to me too but it's people like you that give me the strength to keep writing ^^

* * *

"**Hello"** - Shows that the speaker is a Hollow.

"_Hello"_ - Shows that the speaker is a Zanpakuto.

_Hello_ - Shows that the speaker is thinking

* * *

It had been almost a month since the night out and things were going weirdly. Arrancar attacks were rising at a scary rate, Ichigo had disappeared to fight with the Vizards and it seemed that everything was going pear-shaped pretty fast.

Walking down the road that travelled down the side of Karakura River I could feel a familiar reiatsu following me, again **"what the hell is he doing here?"**

_I don't know, but what ever the reason it can't be anything good_ the man's name was Enbu. He didn't have a last name, they never did, and he was one of many who were recruited into fathers army. I knew him right from the word go as a friend and protector, he taught me to fight, to have fun, he taught me about the World of the living and the Soul Society, he wasn't my only friend whom father had hired but he was defiantly my first.

"Hime-Sama" Enbu stood at around the same height as Ichigo with long, purple-tinged black hair, blood-coloured eyes, pale skin and, as always, Enbu wore official red shihakusho with the seal of the family attached to his Hakama-Himo

"Enbu-kun, why are you here?"

"your father thinks that it's best if you come home and let the war play out"

"why?"

"you father worries that you'll die in this war"

"no, that won't happen. I'm a third seat level inside my gigai, Taichō level outside my gigai and that's still with one seal on. I'm not going to lose to this man who calls himself god"

"of course not, your father still feels that it would be best that you returned to the mansion and let the war play out. They've got the Kurosaki boy, he's a wild-card and will most likely win this war for them"

"possibly but at what cost? I've got my right to fight in this war just as much as the next being and I'm not going to back down"

"of course. Your father misses you, you know. We all do"

"I realize that but you don't have to try and guilt trip me into coming with you. It's not going to work"

"what about those friends of yours then? Your brother and your ex, all your friends. I wonder how they'll take it that you didn't die after all. That you've been right under their noses all along"

I couldn't help but frown "in all honesty if you tell them who I am then you'll be doing me a favor. I was planning on telling them soon anyway"

"hmmm, I might take you up on that then. see what happens"

"See if you can make me miserable enough to make me come home you mean"

"that too. You'll be home before the last battle of the war commences, I've got to make sure of that"

"no. Aizen planned everything that has happened so far, I don't doubt that, but he won't anticipate the person whom he tried to get one over on all those years ago. I'm not going home until I've had a shot at him"

"well, if worst comes to worst, your father has given me permission to use force if necessary"

"lovely" I ground my teeth together in annoyance, Enbu's appearance putting a whole pile of junk in my plans. I watched impassively as Enbu shun-poed away, I felt a senkaimon open and close a few blocks away and it was only then that I started running, full pelt, towards the Shoten.

Skidding around the corner I rushed up to the door and inside the Shoten, feeling marginally safer once I was inside. Even though the shop had a multitude of kido around it I knew that it wouldn't stop anyone from fathers army, especially his personal squads, but it gave some comfort with the memories that it held. I could feel my heart, previously trying to make a break for it, settle back into a normal, if still fast, rhythm as I walked into the back of the shop, slipping of my shoes as I stepped up onto the platform and slid back the shoji screen, revealing the grinning shopkeeper. I couldn't stop the grin when I saw that he still didn't have his fan back "what's got you so hyped-up Hina-Chan?"

"fathers guard was here"

"oh?" that defiantly got his attention, his head snapped up and his brows knotted "what would they be doing here…?" walking back down the hall a few steps Kisuke opened the door to the meeting room, allowing me to enter before adding various kido to make sure that this conversation was kept private

"Enbu-san was sent by otou-san to escort me home. Apparently if I refuse enough times then they're allowed to use force"

"oh, well that sure is a problem. What did you tell him, if I may ask"

"I told him that I'd return, but only after I'd fought in the war. I'm not going to let this bastard ruin my life again" I sighed "he also threatened to tell Shinji and co about my true alias. Obviously he would be executed if he said more than that but if he does end up telling them then it'll screw everything up"

"hmmm…" Kisuke sat, cross-legged, across the table. He had one hand on his chin and a very thoughtful expression on his face "well this could be potentially problematic"

"potentially… it should all blow up in my face if I don't do this right" I put my head in my hands

"well then make sure it all goes right"

"you think it's that easy?" I opened my fingers a crack and peeked through, an eyebrow raised

"no, it could make things worse in the long run, but if you can pull this off then it'll be prefect. You'll be able to stay in the war, you'll be able to tell the Vizards who you are when ever it pleases you and you won't get in the bad books with your father or the Soul Society"

"Yeah, but that means I'd have to do some serious manipulating"

"you never had a problem with that before"

"but that was before the whole thing with Aizen, when your enemies do it then it looses it's charm"

"okay, then just overwhelm them with power. Beat Aizen before he even gets a chance, tell Shinji the whole story, omitting your personal history before the Soul Society for obvious reasons, and have your happily-ever-after"

Rolling my eyes I let my hands fall to my sides "yeah, that'll work so well"

"you could always mix the two. Manipulate Aizen into a corner and overwhelm him with power"

"yeah, and then people will be asking where I got all the power from. Aizen's supposed to be a powerful bugger and if I just beat him about easily then there'll be a lot of awkward questions which I won't be able to answer, ill be investigated/put on trail and possibly executed and then there'll be an all out war again but this time the Seireitei will get thoroughly thrashed…"

"well then don't let them know it's you"

"How do you propose that? I can't change the abilities of Hyoumu-Chan anymore than you can change the ones Benihime posses"

"no but you can change the look. Hyoumu's shards are miniscule particles of ice, they should be able to change their appearance and create a few abilities for that new appearance. That, mixed with your own abilities, makes you a new person completely"

"yeah, maybe. But I can't alter my reiatsu much at all. It'd be almost impossible to change it enough to make me a new person and remove suspicion of me being someone else. If they find out that I'm hiding something like that during a fight with the man who has a Zanpakuto with perfect hypnosis then what do you think they'll think?"

"true. I should be able to make you a special gigai in time for the last stand but it's up to you if you think you'll even need it"

"no, if everything goes right then I won't"

"alright. well what ever happens know that you've always got myself and the others here for you" Kisuke stood up, smiling down at me

"yeah, I know" getting up I hugged the man, smiling "thank you, Kisuke" picking up my bag and turning to the door I let my reiatsu rise, breaking the seal under the sheer weight of it. None was actually felt though, as per usual.

I was just entering my bedroom when I felt Ichigo's reiatsu rocket up, along with Rukia's and that of a particularly strong Arrancar.

Not even pausing to think I dropped my bag and rushed to the closet, grabbing my Gokon Tekkō glove I pushed my Soul out of my body and shun-poed out of the window, gone before my gigai even hit the floor.

The battle was happening in the far end of the Kitkawase suburb and was all the way across town, even then it didn't take me very long to reach it. I paused at the corner of the street, seeing the blue-haired Arrancar encased in ice from the waist down, Ichigo kneeling on the road, with what looked like a Zanpakuto sticking out of his hand, watching with horror as Rukia's head was grabbed, a blood-colored cero being powered up against it.

I started running down the street, my hood fluttering against my cheeks, but was stopped short as a blast of golden light hit the wrist of the Arrancar, making the cero dissipate and releasing Rukia from her fate.

Ichigo looked around, wide eyed and searching "what…was that?"

"my oh my" I looked up ,wide eyed, and saw Shinji stepping down onto the roof. His light grey jacket was fluttering slightly in the wind and Sakanade was resting lightly against his shoulder "I just detest having to interfere with another Soul reapers fight. And yet I have no choice. I can't ignore you, if you're making so much noise"

There was a moment, only a short one at that, where everyone was silent before the Arrancar scowled, growling "who the hell are you? Are you a friend of theirs?"

Shinji sounded bored as he regarded the Arrancar and answered as such "do I look like I am?"

"who are you then?" from these few, scowled, lines I could tell that this Arrancar had a few anger issues

"does it really matter?"

Hearing this the Arrancar glares "no, you're right who ever you are, " he shatters ice, sending chunks fling past me, and grabs his sword from Ichigo's leg, making the boy cry out in pain ", you're dead. 'coz I am going to rip you to shreds" he lunged at Shinji. Shinji dodged the attacks and the two looked like a white and a greyish blur, clashing with a shower of sparks before moving away and clashing again, always moving.

Shinji seemed to be playing with the blue-haired man, dodging his attacks and making him smash his Zanpakuto into the corners or roofs of the residential buildings below. Having blocked the attacks that the Arrancar sent his way Shinji and his opponent were standing just a little way down the street and I could hear him groan. Taking a step forward I was stopped once again when I heard what he said, chuckling quietly "if every time I dodge an attack you destroy a building I won't be able to dodge because I'll just feel so guilty. Try to hold back a little when you're fighting?" I always loved watching Shinji fight, he had a lazy and always joking way of fighting which annoyed the hell out of his opponents, making them loose concentration and making it an easy win for him.

Dodging the arrancars lunge the two turn, once again into a series of blurs, rising higher and higher "can't move any better than that? Huh?"

Shinji says something and puts a hand to hi face, making the Arrancar pause in his attack. Shinji's mask appears and, pulling it down to cover his face, lunges at the Arrancar, becoming more aggressive. Each attack was pushing the Arrancar meters away and they were, once again, having a battle of the blurs. But this time the Arrancar was the one dodging.

Pushing the Arrancar away, said Arrancar lunged, yet again, at the blond Vizard. Shinji shun-poed away only at the last moment, coming up from below to attack the Arrancar "that mask you have on you are one of his friends, admit it"

"don't make me repeat myself, does it really matter?" once again sounding bored, Shinji sends the Arrancar flying down, holding a closed fist out infront of him. Around his fist appeared a circle of red energy, pieces of Reishi in the air around them flocking to the circle and creating a long, vaguely bow-shaped horizontal line of crimson energy **"a cero"** Kari was watching excitedly through my eyes, I could feel her buzzing just below the surface, and I could just picture her grin.

Glancing away from the fight I saw Ichigo and Rukia looking up at the battle, transfixed and wide-eyed.

The two men were talking, Shinji looked bored and the Arrancar looked surprised and slightly afraid. Shinji released his cero and sent the Arrancar crashing to the ground, creating a large plume of dust and what I'd imagine to be quite a good crater.

I could hear the Arrancar swearing as the dust cleared. Climbing out of the crater he turns when Shinji Shun-Po'ed behind him "so you countered with your own cero right before it hit to reduce the damage. That's pretty good" I could see the cogs in the Arrancars brain turning and, as he glanced over to the two shinigami kneeling just infront of me, I could see his eyes widen when he saw another person standing behind his two previous adversaries **"it's getting good now"** Kari sounded hyped up, gleefully watching the fight

"and who the hell is she?" gesturing angrily in my direction "calling back up already?"

Shinji glanced in my direction and, even through the eye-slots in his mask, I could see his eyes widen. Ichigo and Rukia also looked behind them, Ichigo jumped, wincing in pain afterwards "gah, what the hell are you doing here"

"well if you're all making so much damn noise then it's kinda hard to just walk past. Plus I always did like watching Shinji fight" I walked calmly past the two fallen shinigami, ignoring their yelling

"ah, so she is with you" the Arrancar, in a especially fast sonido, was behind me with his blade around my neck and whispering in my ear "so who are you, hmmm?"

"**someone who you shouldn't fuck with without a death wish" **peering around the Arrancar I saw someone who shouldn't have been there. Kari stood behind the Arrancar, a hand around his neck with a light blue cero charging

Looking towards Shinji, calmly holding a hand to the lower waist of the Arrancar with a second cero charging, I watched as he let his mask go and stepped forward "just what the hell is going on here?"

Kari looked over the Arrancar's shoulder and I saw Shinji's eyes widen. Kari looked remarkably like I did, her sliver hair had flecks of green through it and her eyes were the same golden colour, only with the black sclera instead of the white and, though she had no hood on, she wore the same clothes as I did otherwise.

Reaching up my other hand I removed my hood and faced Shinji, watching as he fell to his knees with wide eyes "now I suggest you let me go and return to Hueco Mundo. If you don't you'll have your head blown off by Kari and then you'll be returned to Aizen in a thimble" hearing no agreement from Kari, instead hearing the sound of clashing blades coming from behind me I peek around the Arrancar once again and see Kari, with her back to me, holding her own against a second Arrancar. Kari was fighting with a slender, yet fairly muscular, male Arrancar of average height with a melancholicappearance, fairly short, messy black hair, pale white skin, a black upper lip, and green eyes with slit-shaped pupils similar to a cat's. Part of his bangs fell between his eyes, and he had distinctively thick eyebrows. He had teal lines that descended from his eyes, making it appear as if he was crying though he was more like Ichigo in the fact that his natural facial expression seemed to be a frown. The remainder of his Hollow mask lay on top of his head, shaped like a broken helmet "Our mission is complete. We're leaving"

The blade was removed from around my neck and I was pushed forwards, falling to the tarmac. With the reflexes that I had received throughout my lifetime I turned this fall into a roll, coming into a crouch just infront and to the right of the kneeling pose that Shinji had taken.

With the usual distorted rip a garganta opened, admitting only the two Arrancar before slowly closing again "damn" standing I brushed myself off and, giving a last glance to Shinji, I shun-poed away.

* * *

The next time I saw Shinji was the next day at school. Walking into the classroom I saw Shinji enter soon after, he gave a sullen greeting to Orihime and didn't answer anyone's questions with more than three words. Ochi-Sensei walked into the room before I got a chance to talk to him and it seemed like he was avoiding me all day.

At lunch Shinji disappeared and the only time I could manage to talk to him was after school. I followed Shinji out through the school gates and through Karakura to the Mashiba District to Karakura Community Park. Entering the park after Shinji I didn't doubt that he knew I was tailing him but he didn't stop until he got to a thick copse of trees, where he crumpled into a quietly sobbing heap.

And that was how I found him, on his knees, head bowed and crying into his hands. It struck me then how much he was truly hurting, that his heart was completely shattered and the only thing pushing him on and keeping him sane was the other Vizards and the small hope that he'd find Kaori alive "Shinji…"

It broke my heart to see him look so small, it made my chest feel like it was broken into a million pieces to see him cry like that. Walking over to the bent form of the Vizard placing my bag next to his and kneeling down infront of him, placing my hand on his shoulder. When he looked up I felt almost like I was performing some sort of sacrilege by disrupting his moment of shattered pain, his face was so pale and his eyes were so full of pain and hurt that I felt a hot, burning, tearing pain inside and it was almost like I was being torn in two_ Tell him and alleviate the pain or keep the secret and hurt him more_.

After an intense, though short, piece of inner conflict I pulled the Vizard into a hug, promising to us both that it'll all come out soon.

Shinji hesitantly reciprocated the hug, his tears making a huge wet patch on the right shoulder of my school blouse. We stayed like that for a long time, Shinji had a tight, almost desperate, hold on me which I figured would be so that he didn't break completely, the tears eventually trickling out though the hold stayed as tight as ever.

It was only when the sun was almost set did Shinji slowly release his grip, my legs had gone numb long before and the first drops of rain fell from a now steely grey sky. Shinji slowly stood and, offering me a hand up, caught me when my left leg gave out on me and I went stumbling into him "Arigatō

"I think I should be thanking you Hina-Chan" I looked up at him and had to look away, the look he gave me was so intense "I don't know what would have happened if you didn't show up but I don't think it would have been good" his tone was soft and he slowly released me, my legs steadier now, to grab his bag, holding mine out to me as the clouds opened and the rain came pelting down.

Usually I liked rain, the refreshing coolness and the soft, clean smell, but this rain was harsh and forced out a shiver "come with me, my house is probably closer than yours and you look cold" Shinji grabbed my wrist and gently led me from the copse of trees, bowed in the wet onslaught.

We made quick progress through the district of Old Karakura, the center of Karakura town, and into the old manufacturing area on the edge of town "Shinji, what're we doing here?"

"can the explanations wait until we're out of the rain?" the rain, which was beating a defining tune on the metal-topped warehouses on either side of the thin street, made Shinji have to raise his voice to be heard. His short hair was plastered to his face and head, his uniform was sticking to him just like mine was and water was dripping off his pointed chin and the trickle didn't slow as Shinji stopped outside a particular warehouse, larger than the rest, and rolled up the door. Ducking inside the warehouse I heard Shinji the door closing again but it was only when Shinji touched my shoulder that I was pushed from my stupor.

The Vizards, previous Taicho's and Fuku-Taicho's of the Seireitei, had refurbished a warehouse, a couch sitting with it's back to the door, a doorway showed a flight of stairs to what I guessed would be the bedrooms and a wall half hid a large dining table "what…what is this?"

Hearing voices coming from another room Shinji grabbed my wrist and pulled me up the staircase, pushing open a heavy metal door on the next level to reveal a hallway with several doors. Following Shinji down the hall and around the corner I watched as Shinji pushed open the door at the end of the hall and step in, pulling me after him, before closing and locking the door after him "sorry for dragging you here and I know your confused…"

"what…I thought you lived in the Tsubakidai district. That's what you told everyone"

"yeah well, what would you think if I said 'my parents are dead and I live in a abandoned warehouse with seven of my closest friends'?"

Shinji was rummaging through his draws, occasionally pulling out an item of clothing before putting it back and pulling out another "I'm not sure what I would have said…" even though it was only quiet I was sure that Shinji heard me.

A moment of silence passed between us but it was broken when Shinji turned, a set of folded clothes in his hand, "you probably would've said something that would make me sound like someone I used to be" Shinji's tone was low and full of bitterness but, as he held the clothes out to me, he still managed a small grin ", It's actually kinda nice being close to someone who doesn't know who I was" Shinji showed me where the bathroom was and, with an almost pained expression, closed the door behind me.

The bathroom was small and clean, with blue tiles on the wall and a small sink and cabinet set under a equally small mirror, a shower sat in the corner with frosting in the center of the glass to hide a person's mid-section.

Sighing I placed the clothes Shinji handed me on the edge of the sink, un-buttoning and peeling off my school blouse before substituting it for Shinji's slightly-too-big shirt. The pants were a surprisingly good fit, they were loose around the legs but didn't slide down, I was actually surprised because I always figured that he was skinnier than me around the waist and hips.

Wringing out my blouse, skirt and socks over the sink I tucked my now damp clothes in my bag and let myself get sucked up in the musky, slightly spicy smell on Shinji's clothes. Getting sucked up in the memories I jumped when I heard a knock on the door "Hina-Chan?"

Pulling open the door I smiled slightly, one eyebrow Rose however when Shinji took my bag off my shoulder and grabbed my wrist, gently pulling me towards the door "where're we going now?"

"well I figured that, since it doesn't look like the rain's gonna let up any time soon, you may as well stay for dinner" he sounded hesitant, the pain was once again hidden behind a wall of other emotions. For the time being at least.

"sounds agreeable" I smiled ever so slightly as I followed Shinji back down the hallway, his hand having slipped around my much smaller one. I slowed though hen I heard the yelling coming from the bottom of the stairway "I…apologies in advance for my family. They can get a little obnoxious at times" I saw Shinji glance at me before he started down the stairs, his hand tightening slightly around mine. As we reached the bottom of the stairway I was aware of the sudden silence in the room and let my fringe cover my eyes

"who's she? Better yet, why's she here?" Hiyori looked more tired than she did before, her pigtails had been cut short too

"shut it Hiyori. I think it's good that Shinji's bringing home girls again-…" Rose looked the same as he did before, the same bored expression, though the differences that Rose had were small compared to some of the others

"about time too" Love had abandoned his classic, rounded afro for a more spiked one. This only added to his already scary height.

With each comment I inched further and further behind Shinji, trying to hide from the intense scrutiny.

"is this why you haven't been here all afternoon? I had to beat the strawberry for ya" Said Kensei as he walked into the room, Mashiro following behind him. Mashiro's look had changed completely as she now wore a white bodysuit with orange gloves, boots and scarf, along with a set of goggles sitting on her green hair, it made her look vaguely like some TV superhero

"Ichigo was here?" peeking out from my new position behind Shinji with a curious look

"still is" Kensei said from the couch, having flopped onto it a moment before. Kensei seemed to have a good number of piercings now and that, mixed with his shorter hair, created a tough-guy look "Lisa's giving him a good beat-down right now" a huge explosion rocked the warehouse only a few moments later, shaking dust free from the beams holding up the roof.

* * *

Max - It's short, I know, but I just couldn't find any plausible way to continue the chapter as it was

Shinji - *Bruised and bloody* I hate you

Max - What for now?

Shinji - You set Hiyori on me

Max - True…oh well

Shinji - Oh well…?

Ichigo - *Dragging a unconscious Kisuke past Shini and Max*

Max & Shinji - *watching Ichigo walk past*

Shinji - Well that was odd

Max - But not unexpected

Shini - True…


	5. Expected Suprises

Max - Alright, I know it's short but it was becoming so hard to write. I was having ideas come to me and then having to scrap them the next day…it's horrible what it does to me

Shinji - And by it you mean…

Max - School. Duh

Shinji - Oh

Ichigo - *Cutting into the conversation* I have school and Shinigami duties. It can't be that hard for you, ya wuss

Max - *Sarcastic and sweat-dropping* yes, because writing 24 stories at once isn't distracting at all… especially during NCEA years…

Ichigo - *Shocked* 24. Seriously?

Max - *Sarcastic* No…

Ichigo - Oh, good

Shinji and Max - What a idiot…

Shinji - Max doesn't own Bleach or any of it's characters, only the ones she makes up

Hiyori - *Sneaking up behind Shinji with her sandal poised for attack*

Shinji - *Totally oblivious*

* * *

kankananime123 - I'm glad you liked the story enough to review twice and yes, Shinji does find out who Kaori is in this chapter.

NotAStalker - They probably are a little stupid, though with the war going on can you really blame them?, but they aren't related. Kaori did show her face to Shinji in the fight with Grimmjow but she wasn't in her Gigai so Shinji didn't put it together so quickly. No worries though.

* * *

**"Hello"** - Shows that the speaker is a Hollow.

_"Hello"_ - Shows that the speaker is a Zanpakuto.

_Hello_ - Shows that the speaker is thinking

* * *

It had been three days since Grimmjow's second attack on Ichigo, since I saw Shinji so broken and defeated and since the Vizards, and Ichigo, found out that I could see Shinigami. Really it shouldn't have surprised them, I live at the Urahara Shoten for crying out loud. I even said as much when Ichigo confronted me the next day at school, I had been ignoring all his questions on the subject the night before, and now all the other Shinigami were also pressing for answers, possibly thinking that I had a connection to the "Mysterious Shadow" who had now been revealed as a woman, a Vizard, who looked quite a lot like me.

During the week, on the Friday, a notice went around school about a Music Concert at the school to raise funds for the Kendo team to head to the finals in America. Among the names that I saw when I put my name on the list, I spotted Shinji, Ichigo, Rukia, Orihime and Tatsuki all singing. Writing my name in a free space near the bottom of the sheet, there was need of a new one as only two or three spaces remained, I glanced at the sheet once more before making my way to the fields to meet up with my, now normal, group.

Sitting down next to Shinji, who was leaning back against the trunk of a tree with an exhausted slouch that had become worryingly normal for the tall, skinny Vizard.

I could honestly say that my mind was anywhere but where it was supposed to be, it was re-playing the second meeting with Enbu yesterday.

_"Hime-Sama" not even glan__cing up I could 'see' that Enbu was sitting in the tree above my seat_

"_Enbu-kun"_

"_that was a pretty impressive act in the park yesterday. If I didn't know better then I'd almost believe that you didn't know Hirako-san in any other way"_

"_Arigatō for the compliment Enbu-kun. Though I didn't think you'd come all this way just to say that" I looked up from my book and, straight above me, I could see the ends of the familiar, red shihakusho fluttering in the slight wind._

"_I didn't. I came to tell you that, if you aren't home before the war really starts, __Reiō__-sama will come and get you himself"_

_I scoffed, thankful that there was no-one near by "Otou-sama wouldn't come here, he would be to heavily guarded for even the Shinigami to be suspicious. Add the fact that he'd have 'no reiatsu' and they'd be swarming"_

_Enbu jumped from the tree, landing just infront of me. Grabbing my book he gently shut it, grabbing my hands and kneeling just infront of me "he isn't kidding Hime-Chan. He will come here, un-guarded if he must, to make sure that you're safe to carry on the family should his health fail"_

_I sighed, looking down "I know…, " I felt the single tear drip down my cheek, like it did every time I thought about the past in the Seireitei ", I just need a little more time to do what needs to be done" Understanding clouded the blood-coloured eyes and Enbu nodded, standing_

"_I'll see what I can do" nodding, I released his hands and watched as he started to walk away_

"_Daijoubu donna ni hanarete itemo" I called out our old saying and smiled when Enbu turned, smiling, and waved  
"Daijoubu itsu datte mikata dakara" with that he Shun-poed away, opening a senkaimon a few blocks away_

Looking at Shinji; lounging against the tree, Ichigo, Renji and Rukia; arguing about something with Ikkaku, Yumichika and Tōshirō; having a quiet conversation with Chad and Uryuu, Orihime was talking with Matsumoto, Ryo, Michiru and Mahana while Tatsuki kept Chizuru away from the busty girl and Keigo sat next to Mizuiro, who was watching everyone just like I was "Hina-san, are you singing at the concert?"

"aa" turning to Mizuiro I nodded "I figure it'd be a good way to say goodbye"

"goodbye? Where're you going?" Keigo asked, rather loudly in fact, and everyone stopped what they were doing to listen

"my mother is sick and I need to return to America by the end of next week, " I sighed and looked down, hoping that my sadness looked sincere ", I figure that, since the concert is next Thursday, I could stay in Karakura until then and leave after the concert"

"will you be coming back?" Rukia left her space next to Ichigo and sat next to me

"probably not. This wasn't supposed to be permanent anyway"

"what? You've only been here a few weeks, you can't leave yet" Orihime sounded quite upset at the prospect that I was leaving and, if I was honest with myself, I would miss them all.

"I know, and I don't want to leave but…" I left the sentence un-finished, letting them figure out what I meant by themselves.

When the bell rung for the end of lunch I was torn, I didn't want to leave but I knew that if I didn't then I'd be dragged home, kicking and screaming, by father. The latter was defiantly the worse scenario, I knew that, but the idea of rebelling, of hiding from Otou-sama and fighting in the war was possibly enough justification for staying in Karakura.

I, or rather my mind, was in a far-away place during Science and Art, though it wasn't too dangerous since we had moved on to genetics in science and the nature study in art was done while my body was on auto.

When the last bell of the day rang I walked out of the school grounds, a few near collisions forced my mind back to the present, and turned right. I was turning the corner at the end of the street when I felt an arm drape over my shoulders and, looking up ready to beat the crap out of the person, I looked straight into a pair of familiar, grey eyes.

My fist stopped only a centimeter or two from his nose and, shocked, I kept it there for a moment or two "Yare Yare Hina-Chan, someone's wound up a little to tightly" Shinji said in a sing-song tone, pushing my hand gently to the side and leading me towards the down-town area "you need to relax a little"

"you shouldn't sneak up on people" I grumbled, crossing my arms and trying to duck under Shinji's arm so that I could continue my way to the shoten

Shinji, it seemed, was determined to keep me with him for the time being "I called out to you twice" Shinji said, pulling me back to him after a third, not-so-slippery, attempt to get away from the man and continue on my way. To be honest I wasn't even trying, my brain was still on auto-pilot and it seemed that it didn't comprehend how to escape from the thin, silver-tongued, perverted man

I let out a sigh, resigning myself to being dragged down-town by the blond man "So where are you taking me Shinji?" A change of topic sounded good about now, the crowds around us starting to thicken

"am I not allowed to take my friend out for the afternoon now?" his expression was one of mock hurt, his arm still clamped around my shoulder

"I thought you'd be beating some sense into Ichigo about now" I glanced away from Shinji as I said it, smiling and waving to a girl from the high school as we passed. Shinji's lack of reply made me chuckle "Shinji, I live with Urahara and co. I know things"

"like what things" his voice was probing, the statement however was muttered

"things" I refused to elaborate and I knew it was driving Shinji mad, he was trying to make me elaborate in every way possibly legal in a public place and I ignored him every time, buying myself a coffee from a small café a few streets out from the main road, Shinji wanted a Cola so I made him buy his own.

Sitting on at the edge of the river, a half-drunk coffee still in my hand and a chill-wind blowing my hair around my shoulders "I'm really going to miss this place" I murmured, taking another sip of my coffee as I looked out over the river at the almost-setting sun

I heard Shinji sigh, the blond had been standing behind me and to my right since we got here, and saw him sit next to me out of the corner of my eye.

* * *

Having her sitting that close to me, looking like that and with the sad look that her eyes held. I could say that it was tearing me apart and I didn't know why.

It was a action of impulse earlier that afternoon and I almost got my face mashed in because of it, not that it would have been much different than when Hiyori smacks me around with her 'sandal from hell' or during any of the training sessions to date.

Eventually I managed to force myself to sit next to her, not because I didn't want to but because she looked so much like Kaori at that one point, it pulled me apart more than usual.

I had spotted her giving me odd looks all day.

And all of yesterday.

And all of the week before that.

In all honesty I had been avoiding her for a while and I knew that she was worried, they all were, but it was impossible to look at her without having my heart wrenched in two and pulled forcefully out of my chest as memories of times long past were dredged from the depths of my mind, each one like a knife in my chest. I was almost very slightly happy that she was leaving, it'd mean that the knifes would stop, but I'd probably end up going after her for some obscure reason and, sitting next to her now as she let her eyes slip closed and tilted her face towards the diminishing light and warmth, I knew exactly why.

A second chance at the happy life.

Her skin was slightly paler, her eyes were a darker shade of golden-brown, her hair had no gold in it and she was about ten centimetres shorter but I could be with 90 percent certainty that the demure girl sitting next to me on the grass bank was the reincarnated form of my Kaori.

I almost chuckled at that notion, there was no way it would be that easy and there was no proof that she wouldn't freak out and disappear before schedule _"she knew, she understood, when you told her about your situation with the Soul Society and she called Ichigo and the other two out on it as well. There is no proof that she wouldn't believe you either"_

_Yes but, as she pointed out, she lives with Kisuke and his crazy group. She was bound to at least know the basics behind the spirit worlds and their occupants_ my mental voice was as weary as my actual voice has been lately, though I always make sure to have a proper mask on around the other students it was a different story when school had ended _and I thought you were against me getting my hopes up like I did in Tokyo. Why the sudden change of heart_?

"_I looked into the girl mind, trying to find a possibly dormant inner world…"_ Sakanade's voice faded out and I could hear her sigh, though it was faint

_And…? What exactly did you find?_ She had gotten me curious and she knew I'd keep on asking until I got a satisfactory answer

"_I was pushed out by another force. I got a flash of a world, a huge iced over lake and a ring of snow-covered trees, before I was pushed out by two, very familiar spirits"_ Sakanade sighed once again and I could hear her yelling with my hollow, though that seemed very distant and had an almost distorted quality_ "If it's not Kaori then it's defiantly her reincarnation and it seems that she's already speaking with her Zanpakuto. If it is the latter version of course"_ with that Sakanade faded from the front of my mind, leaving said mind in a jumbled, slushy mess.

"hey, earth to Shinji"

I didn't know what my face looked like but, how ever it looked, Hina knew that I wasn't completely there…_should I even still call her Hina? Should I now call her Kaori…?_ What ever the answer was I wasn't answered by Sakanade, I would have even probably taken advice from my hollow at times like this. Actually no, not even at times like this would I take advice from him.

"**aww, ya wound me king, "**

Pointedly ignoring the hollow I snapped out of my 'Zanpakuto induced stupor', turning to the girl next to me who had, only a moment before, been waving her hand infront of my eyes in an attempt to get them to focus **", ya know, she'd make a good snack, "** the hollow just wouldn't shut up, it was making me more and more irritated and I would sooner go inside my inner world to beat some sense into it than hold this conversation with it. No matter how one sided it was **", I could absorb her, and her power stash, and no-one would be the wiser"**

_Shut up. Anyway, if she's who I think she is then she'd more likely kill us both you idiot_

"**ah, but no-one'd miss her. You need all the power you can get to win the war, to get the revenge on Aizen that you want so badly and absorbing her power could be the key"**

I didn't even bother to reply, smiling ever so slightly as the pain-in-the-ass hollow faded back into my inner world, grumbling things that I was almost glad I couldn't hear. I heard a sigh coming from the girl next to me, a rustle of something and something cool and wet touching the skin at the base of my neck, just above the collar of my shirt.

Sometimes really hated people, the girl walking down the road next to me was at the top of my list right now. Hina had, apparently after trying to get me back to reality for about five minutes, popped the lid of my cola cup and grabbed a good-sized chunk of ice. Which she then proceeded to drop down the back of my top and laugh as I struggled to get the freezing, slowly melting cube of ice out of my top.

Now, as I was walking to the shoten with her, a large wet patch adorning the back of my top, she was still snickering at me whenever she looked in my direction and this caused me to grumble unhappily. Which just made her snicker louder "I really hate you right now"

"awww, don't be like that Shinji, " she finally got the laughter under control ", What I did, I did out of love"

Obviously my expression wasn't something she expected as it sent her into another bout of muffled laughter. Grumbling some rather dark words as I continued down the street, hearing her hurried footsteps as she caught up with me "you could have waited for me you know" she grumbled, blowing a strand of rather bright green hair from infront of her eyes

"didn't have that ice cube down my shirt you know, " I retorted, knowing where this was going to end up ", or laugh so hard" we had ditched our empty cups in a bin a few blocks back but I could see that she wished she had saved a few more ice-cubes

"You wouldn't snap out of what ever trance you were in so I had no choice, " she almost managed to sound innocent and it would have worked if it weren't for the amused grin ", and you looked so funny trying to get the ice cube out of your top that I couldn't not laugh"

We argued all the way to the Shoten where I was, unsurprisingly, set upon by Urahara and Hina was pulled away by Rukia and Orihime.

"ah, Shinji. What can I do for you today?, " Urahara was the same as ever, irritating fan and all ", I take it you're not here for a social visit" When I shook my head Urahara simply turned and wandered down the hall, beckoning me to follow him. I would have followed him even if he didn't wave at me with that stupid fan of his.

Having closed the door and sealed it with kido Urahara sat across the table from me "so what brought you to my shop on this lovely day?" his tone was serious even if his words were the same 'humble shopkeeper' rubbish that he usually used.

"I need to know what happened to Kaori"

* * *

Orihime and Rukia had pulled me into my room, allowing me to get changed quickly as they set up, though for what they wouldn't tell me. Walking out of the bathroom, in a red and black striped tank-top and a black jean mini-skirt, the first thing I saw was Orihime and Rukia sitting in-between small piles of paper. The two had paper in their hands when they pulled me down the hall but the unassuming, white sheets seemed to have multiplied in the five or so minutes I was gone "okay, so why exactly are you sitting in a sea of paper, on my floor, having dragged me off all secret-like?" I joined the two other girls on the floor, moving a few piles of paper first

"we're helping you pick a song for the concert" Rukia said, her tone implied that it should be obvious

"and all of the paper…?"

"songs"

"you wasted all this paper to save yourself having to write down a few song names?" my mental sweat-drop was getting larger and larger as the conversation progressed

"it's not just names, it's also who it's by and the lyrics to the song. We figured that if you found one you liked then you could start practicing it straight away" Orihime's explanation was quiet and it almost seemed like she was doing the same mental sweat-drop as I was. I smiled, their intentions were the best but it was a shame that they wasted all that paper on a lost cause

"ah. And if I said that I already had a song in mind" it was a statement, not a question, but that didn't seem to faze the shinigami or the buxom orange-ette

"it hasn't even been a day, " Rukia said, entering full rant mode ", how could you have already chosen a song?" she demanded, looking ultimately curious

"well I've had these lyrics in my head all day…, " I let my sentence come to a stop, getting up and walking over to my wardrobe. Pulling open the door I re-emerged a moment later with a sleek, black guitar in my grasp ", I hope you don't mind but I really want to get this tune down before I forget it"

Sitting back down, pulling a empty piece of paper and a pen from my bag and resting the guitar in my lap I started to write down the lyrics for a start, occasionally strumming out a cord or two while Orihime and Rukia talked quietly together about what songs they were thinking of doing while they rifled through the various piles of paper.

After what seemed quite a long time I stopped the soft strumming which I had been doing, my right hand instead moved up to rub the back of my neck while my left stayed in it's place "Hina-Chan?"

"hmmm?" Looking at the two I smiled "it's almost half-way done. Would you like to hear it?" both girls nodded and I brought my hand down from the back of my neck. I was about now that Shinji appeared, leaning on the doorframe and watching us with a sad yet almost angry expression.

I pretended to ignore the Vizard as I bent over the guitar once again and started to sing, strumming the first few cords as soon as I did so.

"Mijika ni arumono  
Tsune ni ki wo tsuketeinai to  
Amari ni chikasugite  
Miushinatteshimaisou"

After a moment of deft strumming I started into the song again, keeping up this faster-paced strumming

"Anata ga saikin taiken shita  
Shiawase wa ittai nan desuka  
Megumaresugiteite  
Omoidasenai kamo

Ima koto ni iru koto  
Iki wo shiteiru koto  
Tada sore dake no koto ga  
Kiseki da to kizuku"

I saw Shinji straighten up slightly as I continued to sing, having adapted a song which was close to both of us before the issue with Aizen. Though Shinji had always loved jazz it seemed that, once he heard me sing this while signing paperwork almost three centuries ago, he hadn't forgotten it since and it seemed to affect him in much the same way.

"Mijika ni arumono  
Tsune ni ki wo tsuketeinai to  
Amari ni chikasugite  
Miushinatteshimaisou

You know the closer you get to something  
The tougher it is to see it  
And I'll never take it for granted  
Let's go"

I let the last chord fade out on it's own, looking at Orihime and Rukia with a small smile

"wow. Hina-Chan that was amazing, " I placed the guitar on the ground next to me and stretched my fingers out ", you came up with that in one day?" I shook my head, smiling sadly

"no, this song was made for someone very special to me a long time ago, " A small chuckle escaped from my lips ", I simply had to change the tune"

"oh, that's cheating Hina-Chan"

"how, it's still my own creation and most of the others would be singing songs that people know…" Shinji had disappeared from my doorway as quietly as he first came, he seemed deep in thought with a vaguely disturbed look on his face

"_Hina-Chan, Shinji knows"_

_What, how?_

"_Sakanade tried to get into our mindscape earlier. We managed to stop her before she got in fully and I don't think she saw any of us, though I can't be sure of it, but Kari-Chan overheard the stupid shop-owner spilling to Shinji just before…"_

_Oh, how did Kari know…_

"**I was listening in"** Kari's tone made it sound like it should have been obvious **"duh"**

I sighed, amusedly, and answered a question that Orihime asked me _tomorrow's gonna be a long day…_

* * *

Right from the minute I stepped into the class-room I knew this wasn't going to be a fun day. Shinji had been both avoiding me and crowding me all morning and, by the time lunch rolled around, I was ready to hit the blond Vizard. Or at least something that looked like him.

Sitting down, annoyed like hell, on the grass next to Rukia I could hear Shinji laughing somewhere behind me and it made my teeth grind. Starting my lunch I was glad that I had just taken a bite of the rice-ball in my hand, It gave me an excuse to mostly ignore Shinji for the time being.

By the end of lunch I had given myself an excuse from the next period of class, having punched a tree instead of the blond, and was currently seated in the rather cold Nurses office while the nurse, a middle-aged woman with dark brown hair tied up in a bun and a bored expression, quietly removed the numerous splinters of wood which had embedded themselves in my knuckles, fingers and the back of my hand.

"so how did you do this?"

"I punched a tree" my tone was one of boredom, laced with pain and embarrassment. It was an act of course, except for the boredom, but it seemed to be effective enough to satisfy the curiosity of the nurse

"and why, exactly, did you punch a tree?"

"because if I hadn't punched the tree then I would have punched the guy annoying me" for a moment I wasn't sure that she'd accept this but, when she shrugged and returned to pulling the splinters from my bloodied knuckled, I held in a sigh of relief.

Walking into fifth period maths, half way through the period with my right hand tightly bandaged and a note clutched in my left, I quietly took my seat and pointedly ignored the questioning stares as the teacher began talking once again. Almost immediately a note appeared on my desk and, looking to my right, I saw Rukia looking at me with a vaguely worried expression. Picking up the note which was sitting innocently in the middle of my book I discreetly opened it, looking down at the two predictable words written in Rukia's neat writing

_What happened?_

I sighed and picked up my pen, quickly writing an answer and folding the note back up , throwing the note back to Rukia when the teacher had her back turned

**I punched a tree**

Only a moment later the note appeared, once again, on my book…

_Why?_

And I once again replied in as few words as possible before throwing the note back, a very quick list of events scribbled on the small piece of paper

**Because Shinji was annoying me and I had to punch something**

I took the moment between notes to jot down a few notes on the teachers speech, knowing that I'd need them the next maths period for when we started doing trigonometry involving 3-D triangles and getting angles from 3-D shapes

_So you punched a tree…?_

I sent the note back with a reply and grinned ever so slightly when I heard Rukia stifle a laugh

**No, the bastard ducked and he was standing infront of a tree…**

The quiet scribble of pens on paper filled the classroom, it seemed that we had started on 3-D shapes sooner than expected. Possibly something to do with my surprise entrance causing the teacher to lose her place…?

After an extremely irritating day I trudged back to the shoten, ready to beat some sense into the shop-keeper who made the trouble for me in the first place. Turning the corner and walking into the shoten, acting as if nothing was wrong when in reality I was extremely irritable and was probably going to hit the first blond I saw.

Having quickly changed into a pair of loose combat pants and a tank top I scoured the Shoten for the fan-wielding blond and Kisuke, probably guessing my mood, seemed to be avoiding me but I eventually found him in a meeting with Shinji. I slammed the door shut and placed a Kyōmon over the door before running down the hall. I knew that the Kyōmon wouldn't hold long and I knew that I had little time to get away from the Vizard, the situation was crumbling around me and it made me feel almost powerless, a feeling which I hated immensely.

Walking out of the shop a moment later in a pair of black cargo pants and a red shirt I heard, rather than sensed, someone behind me and, rolling to the side felt something slam into the back of my neck and propel me from my Gigai. Using the forward motion I went rolling forward, palming the earth in a way that made me slow down and allowed me to spin around

This, it seemed, was the ultimate time for fate to be a bitch and it decided to be a bitch in the form of the large group of shinigami currently in Karakura appearing at the other end of the courtyard, behind me. I knew for a fact that both the Vizards and Kisuke's little group had been rather tight-lipped about the whole ordeal, the latter even feigning ignorance until yesterday's 'little talk' with Shinji, and that made this whole ordeal blow out of proportion once the Shinigami arrived, spotting 'Hina' unconscious on the ground in-between myself and the two, idiotic blonds and the 'enemy' holding a glaring war with the two blonds near the shop as a slight dust cloud drifted away. Having recognised me almost immediately, whether by first-hand experience or second-hand account, all the shinigami leapt into action quickly.

Having had their gigai's hide somewhere safe the first to attack were Ichigo, Rukia and Renji, it could almost be said that they were testing my skills before they got too serious. Though that didn't stop them going in heavy "howl, Zabimaru" I was forced to dodge Renji's blade which, sped past my shoulder and slammed into the wall on the far side of the courtyard, pulling back a moment later in a second arc aimed at me which I also dodged closely. To the others I seemed unarmed so they were wary but they weren't going full out, something which I planned to exploit for as long as I could **"Shall we show them a thing or two?"**

"_count us in too"_ with the voices of Kari and both of Hyoumu's spirits echoing around my mind I grinned, pulling the corner of my hood as I rolled out of the way of a well-aimed Soren Sokatsui that had been fired from behind me and to my right by Rukia

"alright then, let's go" as my hood, now revealed to be only a piece of fabric loosely wrapped around my head and held in place by some unknown pin, was removed from my head it simply started to disintegrate

"You three, get away from there. sōten ni zase, Hōyrinmaru" Tōshirō didn't even give the three time to react, leaping high into the air and slashing Hyōrinmaru in my direction, a huge wave of dragon-shaped ice flowing at me with an otherwise intimidating speed and ferocity. The ice dragon roared it challenge at me and, in reply, I simply held up my finger and rotated it once.

"**seems Shorty's caught on"** To anyone else it would have seemed that the dragon hit thin air when it was stopped, creating a huge, spiked mass of ice, but I could see perfectly the small and exceedingly sharp motes of ice which had grouped together in a sphere of ice around me _seems like he has…Shall we?_

"**oh lets"**

* * *

"alright then, let's go" I could see her grin from where I was standing and, if I was honest with myself, it was good to see her again. Though I really wished it was under better circumstances.

I could hear Kisuke chuckling beside me and, watching closely, I still barely saw the flash of ice before Tōshirō's dragon was stopped dead by the sudden, unseen wall of ice. I wanted to jump into the fight, to whisk her away and try to understand but a hand on my shoulder stopped me, the shopkeeper simply shook his head and motioned towards the fight when I sent him a questioning glare.

Turning back towards the fight in time to see the mass of ice, which was previously a part of the Juubantai Taichō's shikai, explode outwards while a second, almost misty group of ice condensed into a pair of deep blue, clear and razor sharp scythes rimmed with a sharp, silvery blade and connected by a thin, ice-blue chain. _It always was spectacular to watch her fight_

In a series of quick, fluid movements Kaori, and there was no doubt that this was my Kaori, disappeared and reappeared at various points around the courtyard, putting the Shinigami on edge and even managing to get in some clean and shallow yet wounding cuts on the various Shinigami. A cut to the back of the pineapples right knee made him topple over, though that didn't stop him from using the extendable blade of Zabimaru to attack where he could "just who are you?" Tōshirō hissed out as his sword was held in place by Kaori's twin scythes, the freezing properties of Hyōrinmaru didn't seem to work on the scythes and that fact wasn't missed by the icy Taichō.

"alright, alright. Kaori, stop playing around, " Urahara ventured out onto his courtyard-turned-battlefield, his fan waving infront of his face calmly despite the fact that the situation was anything but "games aside there is a reason that I called you all here"

Kaori dodged an attack from Renji and landed right next to Kisuke, earning herself a glare from all the others.

* * *

Once everyone was seated comfortably around Kisuke's meeting table the questioning began, though it seemed that they weren't questioning me but Kisuke "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't arrest her now" Tōshirō asked Kisuke, sending a look my way every few moments

"and why would you want to arrest dear Kaori-Chan?" Kisuke asked from behind his fan

"interrogation of a possible threat to the Seireitei-…"

"So basically a damage report, " I asked, not caring that I cut Tōshirō off, as I crossed my arms and levelled a glare at the ice-wielder ", you want to make sure that I don't pose a threat to the Soul Society or the World of the Living"

Tōshirō nodded, opening his mouth to say something when I, once again, cut him off ", Well I can tell you now, that won't be happening any time soon"

"just what has she done anyway?, " Ichigo asked, crossing his arms ", Apart from appearing in a few fights she hasn't really-…"

"I'm supposed to be dead" my response was blunt and, to my amusement, everyone shut up and looked at me

recognition seemed to flare in some of the Shinigami's eyes and it was Rukia who spoke first, looking wide-eyed at Kaori while she did so "Now I know who you are, you're Kaori Ōtoribashi"

"whoa, whoa. Hold on, does that mean that you're related to Rose Ōtoribashi?" Ichigo looked shocked at the revelation, obviously Rose didn't make it known he had a sister

"in some ways, " I grinned, turning to Rukia and ignoring the once again irritated strawberry ", now. How exactly do you know who I am?" though Rukia was the focus of my scrutiny for now I knew that the majority of the people in the room were confused. With a sigh I elaborated my question "I'm sure that after I got away, Yama-Jii wouldn't want my…liberation to become wide-spread news"

"well, there have always been rumors…"

"like?" I couldn't deny that I was curious since, obviously, though a suppression attempt had been made on my escape it hadn't worked properly and word had still leaked out

"**well obviously, the sudden disappearance of a captain would get the gossipers going double time"**

_True…_

"well, one of the more believable ones was that you attacked a fellow captain and were killed quietly because of it…" Rukia looked at me to see if the rumor was, in fact, true but I simply shook my head

"he wasn't a captain back then, though he was as much of a bastard as he is now" seeing their confused looks I sighed "Aizen"

* * *

Shinji - *Bruised and bloody*

Hiyori - *Smirking victoriously* Too easy

Ichigo - *hiding* Don't hurt me

Hiyori - *Grinning but backs of when she see's Max's glare*

Max - *Glaring*

Hiyori - *Walks away*

Ichigo - Oh my god, you tamed the beast

Max - Pfft *laughs*

Hiyori - *Smacks Ichigo* I heard that you idiot

Ichigo - *Sprawled on the floor* owww

Max - *laughs* lesson for next time: don't insult Hiyori when she's within hearing distance

Ichigo - *whimpers in pain*

Song

Closer - Inoue Joe

Daijoubu donna ni hanarete itemo = You'll be okay, no matter how far apart we become.  
Daijoubu itsu datte mikata dakara = You'll be okay because I will always be your friend.


End file.
